White Lies
by Sky Minuet
Summary: When hope distorts our sense of reality, it shows us the things that we want to see instead of the things that we have to know.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hi guys, been a while. It's a busy month for me, so I might not be able to update that quick. I promise I won't discontinue this, but I hope that you guys would be patient for the updates. The fact that I am able to write this prologue almost seems like a miracle to me. And yes, I am that busy with everything.

I would like to inform you about certain things regarding this story. First of all, if this is your first time reading one of my works, you must be oblivious of the fact that I never write these characters in their original form. I always write them as humans, meaning, they do die. Death is irreversible in my version of the HTF world. Second, this story is a sequel to my former stories which are Gravity and Surrender, whilst Surrender is the prequel of the former. Their plots aren't that related with each other, so no need to read those if you haven't yet. Lastly, I have a bad habit of publishing unedited manuscripts and then edit them soon right after. And not just mild edit like, correcting the wrong grammars and/or typographical errors; I actually add a lot of details and paragraphs. So you might want to go back to the chapters, see if there's something of vital essence that you haven't seen before. 'Cause they usually explain a lot as the story progresses. I don't just include details, even if it is a minor one, if they aren't there for a reason.

So that's about it, I hope you enjoy this story because I literally squeeze my baby brain for this. There's no need for you to review, but reviews really make me feel happy and encouraged.

**Disclaimer: **Happy Tree Friends and its characters aren't mine.

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**Prologue**

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The red curtains danced as the momentary visit of the north wind blew and found entry through her open window. The cold air escaped from the thin fabrics and travelled their way to her snowy cheeks, making her whimper a bit. The girl used her right hand to search for the comforter to cover herself with. The pout in her lips faded as she felt warm under the thick sheet and then sighed in content before going back to sleep. Flaky had always hated the cold weather because her poor defence mechanism against sickness would always fail her, so she was more likely to get sick. Getting sick wasn't the only thing that she hated during that kind of climate, it was also the fact that she was alone in her house and no one can give her warm embraces or take care of her when she was suffering from sickness. It had almost been a year since Flippy left her to fulfil his own responsibilities in the military, leaving Flaky in solitude. The last she saw of him was his image waving goodbye to her before riding a military jeep and going to somewhere far away. Flaky wasn't informed about what kind of operation he was attending to and wasn't aware about his whereabouts up until that day. Nevertheless, she promised herself that she will wait for his safe return and had never even thought of breaking that promise after a long span of time.

Many of her friends had devised against her decision, wanting to convince her to be in a relationship with someone else to somehow ease her pain. But the girl's stubborn head wouldn't listen to anyone and kept her choice of waiting for something uncertain. They were all aware that the era of peace was an illusion and silent wars were taking place all over the world, wars that kill the lives and future of the innocent and even the courageous. Flippy wasn't an exception. Everyone considered him a hero after he left their town to be discharged into a foreign country as a soldier and to fight for his motherland, and him being a hero meant that he would probably end up dead. Amidst all the almost deafening rumours of Flippy's demise, Flaky had remained hopeful of his safety and everyone ended up considering her in denial of the obvious truth.

Flaky turned to the side with her eyebrows lowered as a soft moan escaped her cherry lips. The troubled expression in her face began to become more lucid as the images of violence clouded her dreaming consciousness. Her heavy breathing and now sweating forehead gave the idea that she was probably having a nightmare. She tossed and turned furiously before finally snapping out from suffering a terrible dream as she quickly jolted forward with her eyes wide open in shock. When she realised that the brutality of her dark visions wasn't real, the girl clenched her hands on her chest and tried her best to stop her irrepressible sobs and crying. The beads of cold sweat and warm tears began to trickle their way across her trembling face and refused to stop exploring her skin. Gradually, the girl began to calm down but her stubborn tears never ceased to fall from her sorrowful eyes. The visions from her nightmare lingered inside her stressed mind: of warfare, of hostility, of carnage, and of dying. The girl wiped her tears away, wishing that she could erase her worry in the same manner. It wasn't the first time that she had that dream, and day by day the dream was becoming more and more vivid. The dream would always be about Flippy's death. In her optimistic mind she hoped that it wasn't a subliminal message of the reality... that they would remain only in her dreams.

Rays of sunlight began to pierce through the small opening of her red curtains, bringing calming warmness to her sun kissed skin. The sensation brought her comfort, it was almost like how her lover would make her feel whenever he greets her a good morning. The longing for her beloved made her incline almost everything with him; she thought that it somehow effectively dissolved her solitude. The girl made her feet meet the floor before finally leaving the comfort of her bed. She walked her way to the bathroom sink and then washed her face with the warm faucet water.

After a while, the unexpected ringing of her doorbell had caught her attention. She made her way to her front door to check who would want to visit her during an early Sunday morning. Her red fluffy yet spiky hair bounced with every of her step as she traversed from room to room in curiosity, and after arriving to her destination; she put her hand on the door knob before twisting it. She peeked on the tiny opening and saw no one or nothing there. The girl then deduced that it was probably some kid who was playing pranks on her. Flaky was ready to close the door but then something caught her attention: a white envelope, lying on her doorstep.

She was hesitant to get the said item at first but then pursued to get the letter from the floor. She closed the door behind her with the letter between her delicate fingers, impatiently waiting to unseal the message hidden inside the said envelope. Whoever sent that letter remained a mystery to her, until she carefully tore the envelope open. The girl held that piece of paper in her hands and after she read the note, her arms trembled hysterically in anticipation.

'I'm coming home soon.'

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	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **I was able to find time and wrote this chapter after I got home. I'll be honest that I got motivated with the amount of people who paid attention to this story and left a review to encourage me, I really appreciate it. Haha.

OK I lied. Nobody said that. That was me. That was me and my other accounts.

Anyway, I haven't really edited this one. But—as usual—once I find time, I will. Feel free to spot my mistakes, I'll edit them for your convenience.

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**Chapter One  
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_'Sonofabitch,_'

A blonde man wearing a military uniform sniffed as he held himself tighter and would briefly rub his hands against his shivering arms. The warmth brought by the bonfire in front of him didn't do well enough and he thought that he was in the verge of getting sick. The young man sighed in defeat as another cough escaped his throat. It had been a long day and he had spent it in the battlefield, they had infiltrated an enemy bunker and claimed it as their own base. Although what was left of it wasn't that much of use for them, it was of vital essence for it was near the enemy line and would be a potential ambush point. He knew that he should at least be grateful that he was able to make it out there alive yet sick rather than not being able to go back at all. Nevertheless, he can't help but murmur swear words to himself as he felt that his nose was beginning to get clogged.

From a distance, another soldier with green hair was sitting amongst the shadows of a broken structure and noticed the disease ridden man from across the room. He assumed that his friend was annoyed by the looks of his actions and he further noticed that he was coughing uncontrollably. The man couldn't help but chuckle, not that he was enjoying to see his friend suffer, but he found it funny how his comrade got annoyed considering that it was his own fault that he caught the sickness. After a few seconds of just gazing upon his friend, he soon stood up as he sheathed his bowie knife in preparation to speak with the aforementioned soldier.

"Corporal!" he called out in a friendly manner as he approached the blonde. "I see that you're not enjoying the weather."

The man waited for his superior officer to sit beside him before replying, "I can't say I do, Sarge."

Soon, a soft chuckle escaped from his mouth before giving his friend's back a gentle slap. "How's the cold doing?"

"Like death warmed over," he rolled his eyes. "My throat is killing me."

"That's better than someone else killing you by slitting your throat,"

The blonde laughed almost with glee and nodded. "Yeah, might as well feel pain than feel nothing at all."

He shortly got over from laughing and fell silent. He then leaned his back against the fragmented wall and let out a long exasperated sigh. The crimson looking sky caught his attention as he smiled in thought. "I can't wait to go home,"

As soon as he heard him speak those words, he couldn't help but become distraught as the memories of his hometown began to flood his reminiscing mind. The man glued his eyes on the floor with an expression that can only be called sulking. It had been a long while since he had heard anything about his home. When he got to that foreign country, he thought that he would be able to go home after a few days of their arrival. But soon, days became weeks and then weeks became months. Now they were all afraid that months might become years.

In that span of time, he met many faces. Some were old, the others were new. Most of the FNGs confused him in many ways, for the first few weeks of their arrival; they seemed to be somewhat thrilled of what was to come, and then after a while they were the ones who were whining and complaining about random things. Soon thereafter, they would be the faces inside the coffins as one of his subordinates would comment with a smug smirk formed in his lips, _'There kiddos, you finally got your ticket back to mama.'_

A slight curve in his lips slowly became evident before fading quickly right after. He wondered if his ticket back to his hometown would be the same with the kids he was thinking about a few seconds ago. Perhaps he would, for it seemed like the government wouldn't let them go back unless they were dead and useless.

"We will go home soon, Corporal." The green haired man said, trying to be optimistic.

"I sure hope so," he replied and wiped his nose with his sleeve before continuing. "DA should get their asses in here and actually see what it's like instead of just giving us encouraging speeches about false hope."

The man laughed as he found his friend's remark humorous yet ironic.

"I mean we could use some reinforcements since we're outnumbered," the blonde added in a mocking tone. "I can't wait to see our government fight their own wars. Can you imagine it? 'Cause I can. And guess what, they'll end up dead."

He felt that he couldn't suppress his laughter any longer and the noises he made became more audible. The bitterness of his friend against politics erased the remorse that he was feeling when they were talking about getting home. "Enough about that, get some sleep."

"Yeah, I could use a nap." His friend replied in a rather sombre manner.

The green haired man found it too obvious not to be noticed and it made him confused about what his actions truly meant. He then shook the idea off of his head, and decided to just ignore his notation as he resumed leaving the blonde's side. He took a few steps forward before the unexpected had come to happen and forever altered the course of their destinies.

A huge bang of light and resonance travelled its way from the skies to pierce through the crumbling roof of their self-proclaimed refuge to strike the unknowing soldier, killing him instantly. The impact was strong enough to push the green haired man until he hit the dusty floor. Shrapnel pierced through the skin of his back that made the man wince in pain as soon as he realised the wounds inflicted upon him. However, he disregarded his own injuries as he noticed that it wasn't just his own blood that was staining the floor but also with his friend's entrails. The man froze in horror as he became aware of the fact that the guy he was just talking to was now dead and shattered into several pieces.

Loud sounds similar to what had arrived before had begun to deafen its beholders as the echoes of death followed its mighty roar. It wasn't long before his friend got followed by several others who were now probably having a conversation with their creator, after leaving stomach churning traces of their lost lives. He snapped out of his senses and crawled into an area with an overhead cover as he contacted his comrades by the use of his radio.

"X-ray, this is Hotel Six, come in!" he exclaimed in panic as he held the rifle beside him in his hands. "X-ray, do you copy?"

"Yes Hotel Six, we read you. Give us a sit-rep, over." The voice in the other line replied with a calm voice.

"We're being attacked with mortar fire in all directions, how the hell did they know we're here?"

"A search party must've compromised your cover or a runner must've escaped to pass the Intel." he said with uncertainty. "Hold out as long as you can, we're already forwarding your coordinates to Lima Nine. Evac should arrive in 25 minutes. X-ray, out."

Not long before that, he felt something tug on his sleeve. As a result, he turned his head to the side and found his subordinate who was holding his rifle near to his chest then a few more others behind him who were taking cover. The young man looked like he had woken up from a nightmare with his eyes wide open and trembling hands.

"What do we do now, Sarge?" he asked in despair.

"What's with the tone, private? I saved your ass a couple of times now, I could use a little faith."

"Sorry, Sir." The young man lowered his head in shame.

"Go to the higher ground and find where the mortar fires are coming from. They shouldn't be that far since they seem to be accurate of our position." He commanded. "Grab all the ammunition and wounded men you can find. As soon as the mortar fires go dark, the enemy soldiers will surely attack right after. We'll regroup in the east and hold out until evac gets here."

"Hooah," A man with auburn hair and masculine built said in agreement as he locked his rifle, ready to load.

All of them stood up and ran to where their commanding officer told them to go, and he soon followed them after grabbing a bag of Claymores on his way to east. He embedded those explosive traps in every covering spot he encountered before finally reuniting with the squad. The group watched his arrival and awaited further instructions as he hid himself behind the thick pile of sand sacks beside them. When his heavy breathing soon fell into its normal pace, he noticed that the mortar fires were over and it became quiet—too quiet. The stillness of their surroundings made them tenser than what they already were, it made them feel that something worse was going to happen and each second it was brewing gradually and excruciatingly. Their superior tried his best to catch their attention to somehow erase their anxiousness in order to brighten up the atmosphere.

"Alright, listen." His words broke the painful silence. "Two of you will man that MG; half of the squad will defend this position as the others will guard the flanking routes. When evac arrives, assist the wounded first while the others provide suppressing fire."

"Get to your positions," he added. "As soon as you hear the signal, you know what to do."

The soldiers held that positive idea of them being able to get out of there alive albeit the fact that they were greatly outnumbered and unprepared. The only thing that motivates them to fight was the hopeful idea of with every single man they kill was one step closer to attaining peace. Soon, they will be able to go home—all of them. They waited for the signal to come and aimed their rifles to the enemies' presumed direction. Some were confident, some were silently praying, and some were holding onto wishful thinking. The sergeant took his dog tag under his black shirt and brought it in front of his lips as he reminded himself of something that he should keep in mind: someone was waiting for him back home, and he should make it out there alive. He let out a long groan with his eyes closed in distress as he felt himself being pulled by life and death in both directions.

"Hotel Six, be advised, our sensors indicate that a large group of enemy infantry are entering your coordinates." A hazy voice from his radio snapped him out of his thoughts. "Other than that, pop green smoke so we can see your exact location. Over."

"Solid copy, X-ray." He replied.

"Alright, Hotel Six. God be with you. X-ray, out,"

The man beside him called his name and that quickly caught his attention, he then waited for him to continue with what he was going to say. "I spotted the enemy, they're Oscar Mike."

"Let them get closer," he replied with a calm tone.

"Sir," he nodded as he returned his gaze under his sniper rifle's ranger finder scope.

It wasn't long before the signal came off followed by loud noises of foreign language and shouting. By instinct, the men took out those who weren't fast enough to take cover and continued to shoot whoever they spotted. The horizon soon became clouded with the haze of gun powder as the symphony of violence provided suitable music for such a scene. Some of their own had been taken out and fell in their bloody doom as the others remained courageous to continue fighting, even though they were aware of the possibility that they might join their comrades soon. Nevertheless, the fear in their hearts never tainted their strong desire to live.

The green haired man blasted the enemies with his last explosive round and then tapped his subordinate's shoulder, ordering him to pop green smoke fifty yards from their current location and to take a few of them with the wounded combatants before continuing to shoot his targets. The runner and his comrades marched in a swift pace towards the open space where the helicopter was clear to land. As soon as he got there, he pulled the pin of the smoke grenade and threw it a couple of inches away from where he was standing and waited for the evacuation vehicle to arrive. His restless mind and body waited for their salvation to arrive and after almost two painful minutes, Lima Nine had spotted the brilliant coloured smoke and safely landed in the area. The soldiers saw that vehicle as an image of a mechanical angel who will save them from their impending doom.

"We'll get the wounded first," said the man who stepped out of the helicopter. "Where are the others?"

"They're in the hot zone," he replied hastily as he stepped backwards, ready to leave. "I'll go get them."

And with that, he left them to once again venture the ruins they once passed through. Upon his arrival, a few of them immediately noticed him and most of them arched their eyebrows.

"Why the fuck are you here?" the red head said in a rather annoyed tone. "Don't tell me that evac's a bust."

"N-no," he was able to let out amidst his hoarse panting. "They're here."

"You should've just radioed us," another rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, there's this thing called technology. You might wanna google it some time,"

"I-I just thought that—"

"Enough," the green haired man felt that their conversation was getting into his nerves and quickly cut them off before it gets too far. "Private, take the others to the LZ."

As soon as they heard that, they quickly prepared to leave the dreaded place as the others remained for a while for covering fire. They soon have come to notice that the enemy reinforcements were coming and they were twice as many as before, and were carrying heavy artillery with them. Upon seeing that sight—the sergeant fell silent, trying to formulate effective plans against their adversary. He carefully weighed his options inside his mind and the consequences that awaited him after its execution. Self-sacrifice seemed noble but it also meant hurting someone who he held dear more than anybody else, yet it will save the lives of his men and their future. Men where he saw a lot of potential and dreams. They were too young to die. When images of a certain girl with red hair came dashing into his puzzled mind, he felt the need to cry. Will he ever see her again after that night? Will he ever smell her strawberry scent? Will he ever hold her and never let go of her anymore? Will he ever be able to come home?

He knew in his guts that he had to do something, or they will all die in vain.

His subordinate noticed that he wasn't moving away from his position so he said, "Sarge, let's go!"

The man—on the other hand—was putting satchel charges around his hips and some grenades with pins tied altogether around his chest as he remained responsive to his comrade's sentence. Visions of a girl with red hair appeared vividly amidst the darkness that blinded his closed eyes as he stood up to fulfil his plan. He then began to walk to the opposite direction, ignoring the questioning stares of his subordinates behind him.

"Sarge, where are you going?" the one wielding a sniper rifle had exclaimed.

Cold air began to blow the dust away from his hair strands and brought calming sensation in his body. He then stood up in a strong stance and finally replied, "I'm going home, Private."

After popping smoke to cover their retreat, he walked towards the thick haze and soon faded into the crimson night.

-To Be Continued-

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**DA - **Department of the Army

**FNG - **Fucking New Guy

**Go Dark **- or going dark; to disappear or suddenly become unavailable.

**Hooah** - a US Military battle cry which means, "referring to or meaning anything and everything except no."

**Hot Zone - **area under enemy fire.

**LZ - **Landing Zone

**MG -** Machine Gun

**Oscar Mike - **The letters O (oscar) and M (mike) of the military phonetic alphabet which when used together indicates that a unit is "On the Move" or sometimes, "On Mission."

**Sit-Rep** - Situation Report


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **It's amazing how I can manage to write this fanfiction despite my busy schedule. Aren't you guys amazed? 'Cause I am. Not until I became aware of the fact that I am the Lord of Time Management. I'm a freaking super hero, dude.

Alright, none of that is true. If there's anything super in my system, that would be lying and procrastinating.

And this note is not a necessity, I just typed this to embarrass myself.

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**Chapter Two**

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A loud cracking sound of breaking glass had echoed throughout the tiled walls of a cafe's kitchen area. A certain red-haired girl sharply hissed in pain as blood trickled down her now injured hand. The noise caught the attention of many of her colleagues but only one of them went to her and it wasn't even because she was concerned about her welfare. The tall slender young lady stood before her in irritation with her hands on her hips, carrying a stance which implied her superiority over her. As she quivered in pain, the smaller girl gazed upon the young lady with uneasiness.

"How many plates this week, Flaky?" she said with an ear-wrecking tone. "Those things don't grow on trees."

"I-I'm so sorry, Petunia. I promise I'll be more careful next time," Flaky stuttered.

The woman—on the other hand—didn't appear to be pleased with her reply and began to walk away from her as she spoke, "I've heard that so many times before. I wonder when will you actually do it,"

Her voice had gradually began to fade away but her heart cringing words were too sharp to ignore when she added, "That girl thinks that everyone feels sorry for her, when she's actually just an annoying whinny baby who doesn't get over about her boyfriend."

The red head felt something sting in her chest after Flippy got mentioned, particularly in her fragile moment. She disliked it whenever someone brought up anything about him, especially when they talk about him in a bad way. Tears were starting to dwell in the sides of her eyes as she tried her best to fight them back. Enduring her emotional vulnerability, she knelt on the marble floor and picked up the broken pieces of the shattered plate with care. As soon as Petunia left the room, another girl went dashing towards the red haired girl with a look of worry in her face. She took a few shards in her hands herself as a form of assistance to the fidgety girl.

"I'm so sorry Flaky, you know how Petunia is..." she said in all hopes that it could somehow comfort her friend.

Flaky smiled at her friend's statement, thinking of how kind natured the girl was and then wondering why was she even friends with the former prickly girl. Petunia wasn't that sensitive about other people's feelings and would always tell them what she thinks about their actions, especially when those people weren't doing her good. Soon right after, Giggles would come running to make that someone feel better and apologise for Petunia's disconcerting remarks. It seemed appropriate somehow, complimenting each other with their diverse personalities. Flaky tried to imagine how it was like to have a best friend since she never had one all her life, probably because of her distrustful nature. The only person she was close with was her cousin, Cuddles, and she couldn't say that she enjoyed his company because the troubles he brought her—never ended well.

They both rose up from kneeling as Flaky threw what they have collected down to the disposal bin. Giggles lingered and opened her mouth yet she seemed to be battling with herself whether to speak or not. After getting over with indecisiveness, the carefully chosen words finally came out from her mouth. "Hey... Cuddles and I are going out tonight. I was wondering if you would like to join us. It has really been a while since we hung out together... we miss you, Flaky."

The idea of her going out after a long while of secluding herself didn't bring good vibrations to her. Besides, she didn't want to bother the two with their presumable date. "I... I don't think so. I mean, I don't want to go between you guys..."

"Oh, no!" Giggles said and Flaky swore she saw a hint of the colour pink creep on her cheeks. "It's totally fine. Besides, Toothy and Nutty are coming with us."

Flaky now became more uneasy with the whole idea given that she had to deal with all the awkwardness it would bring. It had been a long time since she saw those people and she knew that there would be a lot of questions they would ask and vice versa. She now realised how distant she became from people, even to her friends. The pink haired girl soon noticed that she was struggling with her decision making, so she thought that she could say something to somehow ease her agony.

With her left hand covering the side of her lips, she whispered to Flaky's ear, "Don't worry. Petunia's not coming since she's too busy cleaning her house."

A small laugh escaped her mouth and by instinct, she suppressed the sound with her palm. How Giggles could make anyone feel better without fail remained a mystery to her, but it was certainly what she would call talent. "Alright, I'll go with you."

The pink haired girl jumped in delight, making her uniform's skirt flutter. She then held Flaky's hands with her own as the grin in her face provided an invigorating sight for the other. "I'm looking forward to it! We'll go after work, OK?"

She nodded in return and smiled. With a pessimistic thought, she knew that she would regret her choice but Giggles was too keen to be rejected. Giggles started to walk away from her to continue what she was doing before the incident happened as Flaky looked down to her wounded hand with concern. The girl couldn't help but sigh with the sight of her blood trickling down from the small opening. She hated being so weak that made her mess things up with her clumsiness. To be honest, she loathed her femininity. She envied men for their freedom and capabilities, things that were accepted in the norm. Shaking the negative vibes off of her system, she went to the kitchen sink to wash her wound with cold water. The girl watched how the colour red slowly became dissolved by the colourless liquid.

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Vintage lights were switched off before the large entrance door opened, revealing the two figures of girls who were about to leave the area. One emerging figure was a girl who seemed to be uneasy and was wearing a thick brown knitted sweater, a dark coloured hot pants, and pale brown thigh highs matched with brown leather boots. The other was looking cheerful and wore a red lacy dress that went down just right below her knees and a pair of leather shoes with the same colour. As they were walking the leave covered pavement, the two were talking with each other and the one with the pink hair was the only one who seemed to be stimulated with their conversation. Nonetheless, she didn't look like she was going to give up into brightening up her companion's mood anytime.

The same scene between them continued until they reached their destination. A few familiar faces greeted their eyes and some of them were surprised at the red head's presence, making the girl feel what she assumed she would. These familiar faces were namely: her cousin, Cuddles; her neighbour and once close friend, Nutty; and Cuddles' best friend, Toothy. The boys hadn't changed so much from the last time they got together. Cuddles still liked warm coloured clothes, Nutty's luminescent hair still caught her attention, and Toothy's buck teeth would still fleetingly stick out on his bottom lip. Her observations made her wonder if anything had changed with their personalities, given that nothing seemed to be different with their appearance ever since. The two boys welcomed Flaky with a hospitable smile, and it made her feel more confident with herself.

However, the other boy who had green brilliant hair tried his best not to pay a glimpse of the small girl. Out of them all, Nutty was the one who really took Flaky's past actions seriously and was hurt when the mentioned girl stopped seeing them. Many others thought that Nutty was somewhat weird and had the tendency to hurt people just to get what he wanted, so only a few had the guts to befriend him. Given Flaky's kind nature, she was the only one who took the time to understand Nutty's egocentric ways. They soon became close in a short span of time; and although Nutty didn't realise it, he was attached to the girl more than he thought he would be. The guy beside him noticed that he was ignoring, or better yet, was reluctant to interact with the red head. He caught the young man's attention by hitting him with his elbow and then he glared at him with dagger sharp eyes. Nutty only shrugged and went in into the Pub, leaving them without any spoken word. The blonde sighed in defeat and then met his eyes with Flaky's own crimson pair.

"Nutty just ran out of his sugar supply today," he said as he tried to be humorous with the intention of brightening the mood. "don't mind him."

The rest of them laughed as Flaky's own laughter quickly faded soon right after. Worried that she will never be able to patch things up between Nutty and herself, she found it hard to be completely happy. The girl then considered the idea of her just leaving the group, but Giggles strongly disagreed. Her red orbs glanced over the cemented ground before finally making the choice to stay. As they entered the establishment, the scent of smoke and of booze reigned the dim lit spacious room. Flaky didn't like what she saw in her surroundings, let alone the awkwardness of their company. The girl beside her became worried of Flaky's discreet yet noticeable reactions which implied that she wasn't enjoying their company, so she tried to open a conversation as soon as they found a place to linger.

"So Flaky, do you have any plans this winter?" she asked with enthusiasm. "We could go skiing together, if you like."

"Um... I think I'll stay in town," she replied.

"Why? Come on, Flaky. You need to go out," Cuddles quickly retorted.

Flaky was reluctant to open up about Flippy but then she realised that she had no choice. "I got a letter from Flippy the other day, he's coming back soon."

All of them stared in unison with a sceptical look in their faces as they found it hard to believe that the aforementioned man was still alive. Even Nutty who had his eyes glued into something else found it hard to stop himself from giving Flaky a dubious look. They were left speechless for a couple of seconds before Cuddles finally let out the breath he was holding and then he leaned his back against his chair. Although he was obviously clueless about which things could be appropriate enough to say about Flaky's statement, he decided to break the silence with a fake smile. "That's great. I knew that man was unstoppable."

Nutty rolled his eyes in frustration while the others forced themselves to say encouraging lies to the girl. In all honesty, he found it hard to believe that the man was still alive. Soon enough, the young man finally lost it and hit the wooden table with his fist to gain their attention.

"Stop it," the angry tone pierced through their ear drums. "I know damn well that all of you don't think that way."

"Flaky, Flippy's gone. He's dead." He added after a pause.

Toothy, being the kind fellow that he was, tried to stop Nutty from his sudden outburst. "Hey, man. Don't be like that,"

"What? You want me to say the same things you guys said? Fucking force lies into her head just to make her feel better?"

Cuddles redirected his glaring eyes to Nutty as he finally lost his nerves, "Nutty, stop it!"

The other young man opened his mouth, ready to say something to prolong their argument. But before the painful words came out from his mouth, it was soon halted with a familiar sound of crying. He then returned his attention to Flaky who was now weeping as her hands tried their best to conceal the tears beneath. The longer he watched Flaky, the more he realised the damage he had done not only to the girl but also to their night. Everyone threw fierce glares towards him, even Giggles who was too gentle to even hurt a bug. Flaky didn't know what to feel about the words thrown at her, and it felt too overwhelming that she needed to let it out by crying. What hurt her more than anything else was the fact that nobody believed her. Nobody believed that Flippy was coming back. Nobody believed that Flippy was still alive. Even though it didn't kill her hopes, it somehow made her feel alone. With all her might, she wiped her tears away as she left her seat. Her decision to leave became solid from everything that had happened; besides, she didn't want to cause any more dilemmas for her friends. In her self-pitying belief, she knew that none of this would have happened if she weren't there.

"Wait!" Giggles yelled but with a soft pitch.

Regret soon conquered the young man's conscience; he didn't mean to hurt her. He held himself responsible yet his arrogance convinced him that he didn't actually do anything wrong. In fact, he thought that what he did was just for the benefit of the girl's welfare. She needed someone who would tell her the truth instead of someone who would boost her delusional wishful thinking. Flaky—on the other hand—was already halfway to the exit and was trying her best to hide her face from the unknowing crowd. She could hear Giggles' fast paced footsteps behind her but was too devastated to care. All she wanted now was to escape—like what she always did before.

Both of the young girls found themselves outside the crowded room as Giggles finally caught up with the other.

"Flaky, I'm so sorry about Nutty." She once again tried to vouch for her friend. "He didn't mean to say that, he's just concerned."

The red haired girl sniffed before answering, "I know, it's alright Giggles. I understand,"

"You know..." by the way she spoke, she seemed to be hesitant with what she was going to say. "...maybe Nutty's right. It's really been a long time since we heard anything about Flippy. Maybe he—"

When Flaky heard the words she threw even if it was in a subtle manner, she felt something brewing in her nerves as it slowly drained out her sanity. She could take everyone else to say those things to her, but Giggles? She had always been the one who comforted her and cheered her up in her most vulnerable moments. She was one of the reasons why she could endure the stress everyone had inflicted upon her. But now that Flaky was aware that Giggles had secretly thought the same things other people did about Flippy, she realised that everything was a lie. They were all liars.

"He's coming back," the girl shot back. "I don't need you guys to believe that, but he IS coming back."

The shorter girl was then convinced that there was definitely something wrong with Flaky as she beheld the girl's expression. She was somewhat mentally disoriented. It seemed like she was... losing it.

Flaky then began to walk away from her without even turning back, no matter how many times she heard Giggles call her name. She knew that she was being inconsiderate of their efforts, but she thought that she didn't need it. Although others might disagree, she saw herself as an independent woman who knew that she can carry on without anyone's help. Also, she was so full of everyone trying to convince her that Flippy was gone. She was so full of everyone trying to control her decisions and almost her life.

It wasn't long before she found herself walking in a dark alleyway that she didn't feel comfortable to use as a route to her home. Indulging herself with thoughts made her become oblivious to her environment. It made her groan in disbelief when she realised where she actually was. The girl was ready to turn back and take another route when she noticed something peculiar—a shadow of a man, walking right behind her. Reminiscent of her paranoid senses, she felt uneasy with the presence of an anonymous being. What made her predicament worse was that nobody else can be found in that area. The pace of her steps accelerated into hasty walking, and then into running. Noticing that the shadow was nearly approaching, she closed her eyes in fright as her feet began to betray her faithful body. To her demise, a strong arm pulled her backwards and threw her on the near wall to finally put a stop to her escape. Every part of her body began to hurt, specifically the head and spine area.

As she panted for air, sounds of struggle found their way out from her dry mouth. Everything became dark as she noticed that the man was covering her line of vision with his body, and it gave excruciating chills down her spine. The strong smell of alcohol made her stomach churn and thought that the man before her must be drunk. This observation made her more terrified and made her tremble uncontrollably. Every second she spent staring at the silhouette brought morbid images into her restless mind. When she hoped it couldn't get any worse, a loud cracking sound of glass breaking made her jolt upwards. The man had harshly broken a bottle of beer against the brick wall and pointed one of its remains against her neck. Refusing to open her eyes, she felt the beverage trickle down her palm, travelling with the shards of the destructed item.

And, she didn't like this—not one bit.

The aggressive stranger stared down at her quivering figure with such disdain and began to lean closer. She looked at him like he was someone who represented fate's cruel vengeance. A symbol of her punishment from the sins she had committed towards what she had come to abandon. Their distance was stressfully getting shorter and shorter as the man's stench became stronger and stronger. She put her arms in front of her face as a form of defence against the man. With a sharp gasp and eyes shut tight, her destiny awaited to be revealed underneath the protection of her eyelids.

_'Oh god, please... no!'_

Seconds had passed and she remained unharmed. Her other senses provided her information about the situation as she heard the sound of skin being stabbed and then followed by the man's groans. The sound was too quick and passed by like the breeze on her skin. It was that moment which made her wonder about what was really happening. Something made her feel that the man's presence was gone as the hint of alcohol and breathing had vanished. Not far from her location, she heard the same grunting and its intensity became greater then soon—faded into nothing.

The silence brought a comforting atmosphere to her even though it didn't clarify anything at all. So then the girl thought, she had to be courageous enough to open her eyes and find it out herself. The moon revealed itself from the visage of dark clouds and provided a good amount of light to help her see what she needed to. A few yards away from where she sat, there stood a man and before him was a gory chaos that he obviously had caused. The figure soon felt that he was being watched and turned his gaze upon her quivering figure. He took slow steps towards her direction as the girl—on the other hand—searched for something which she could use to defend herself. Her hands flailed and in their panicky search, she found sharp glass shards from the ground. She took the largest one in her hand and held it in front of her, pointing the sharp edge at the man who was now a few inches away from her.

"Don't come any closer!" she exclaimed.

"Hm... I've heard that before," he replied with a sly smirk creeping on his lips. "Put that sharp thing down, Flaky. I don't want any more scars,"

That deep voice was surreal, it wasn't possible—or so she thought. The glass shard dropped when her fingers set it free; reuniting with the cold ground it once laid on. Her trembling became greater but it was no longer because of fear, but because of anticipation. Tears distorted her vision and she felt the need to quickly wipe them away in order to actually see his features. Could that moment be a dream? Could it be actually him?

The man reached his hand out to help her get rid of her tears and as soon as Flaky felt that warm familiar hand, she pushed herself towards those broad shoulders and held him with a bone wrecking squeeze. She no longer stopped her tears from flowing down her tear ducts for they no longer signify anything else but joy. He rubbed his cheek against hers and then inhaled her Strawberry scented perfume as he wrapped his arms around the small lady.

"I'm home,"

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-To Be Continued-

**Another Annoying Author's Note: **Oh yeah, I just wanted to clarify that Nutty had no romantic interest in Flaky. Just throwing it out there. I tried my best to keep their personalities, really I did. But what the hell mate, I'm not really used to writing about these guys so... forgive me if they seem to be out of character.

Now, I just wanted to say that I am quite anxious about the next chapter. Mainly because somehow I can't stop myself from writing M rated materials, or it just can't be helped. So what I'm going to do is to separate that scene so that this story could remain Rated T. Alright, are you guys cool with that? Yeah, nevermind. I'm gonna do it anyway.


	4. Chapter 3 Part 1

**Author's Note:** First things first, I have good news. Hell weeks are over for me and I have a lot of free time now. Meaning, I have a lot of time allotted for writing and the only thing that will hinder me from it is my laziness. Bad news, here we go. Umm. First, I decided to cut out a part of this chapter because I wanted you guys to concentrate more on the storyline rather than their romantic inclination with each other. I realised that it was kind of distracting... I guess? Second, I'm sorry if this is insanely short. I'm suffering from a dose of pressurenification and slumpiness and I'm also lazified. I hate when that happens all at once, but who doesn't?

Nonetheless, this won't happen again since I like writing about dying people.

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**Chapter Three**

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Under the dim light offered by the moon and artificial lights bathed their skin as they walked their way to Flippy's home. They found it hard to focus into walking as they were momentarily distracted with each other. There were no words thrown or questions asked, only tender caresses and clenched hands as their feet minded their own businesses of walking. Her ruby eyes were glued to him, refusing to blink. As if any minute that she took her eyes off of him would be the last time that she would see his presence. It wasn't long before her companion noticed that he was being watched and felt the need to pay a glance at her. The sight of her face made him smile for some reason and soon followed by a small chuckle.

"Why are you staring at me?" he asked as he returned his attention to the pathway.

Flaky then felt a warm flush had started to dominate her cold cheeks. "I'm trying to remember how you looked like before you left,"

"Well, do I look better?"

She let out a hearty laugh with his remark and said, "You never change,"

"I hope that quality does include my physical trait,"

"Are you trying to imply that you look good?" amidst her sentence was a suppressed laughter as she tried her best not to burst into it.

"Not really, but that just means that you think I have a good personality."

The girl was soon defeated by her own need to express her amusement as the laughter liberated itself from captivity in her lungs. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Successfully turn the tables around,"

"I don't know but maybe it's a part of my _good personality_," he replied with a somewhat smug tone as he glanced at her at the end of his sentence.

As they were soon aware that they were standing on his doorstep, she turned to him with beaming eyes and widening smile. Despite all these conversations she still couldn't believe that he was actually there, with her. "It's nice to have you back, Flippy."

The man smiled, enjoying the sight of her lively crimson orbs glistening under the faint moonlight. "Come here,"

He took a hold of her chin and pulled her closer towards him, close enough for a passionate kiss. They both closed their eyes in the process as Flippy blindly searched for his house keys to unlock the door with. With locked lips and tangled arms, they travelled their way to where the bedroom was. It was a surprise that Flippy still knew his way around his house, given that it had been a while since he left that place. Although that was the case, they did stumble upon certain ornaments that resulted to its downfall which they only laughed at before continuing. Soon, they found themselves inside the bedroom and Flaky thought that the place was still the same. Neatly arranged pillows, hanged antique paintings and of course— his favourite, knight armours wielding halberds. She didn't know how he could stand sleeping with those things around. Whenever she saw them, she always assumed that they were going to move any minute. Flippy pulled away and looked like he just remembered something, only to get a sceptical look from the girl.

"Wait, Flaky. I need to drink," he then noticed the pout in her lips and couldn't help but laugh in its sight. "Haha, seriously. I need water before I forget where the faucet is,"

And with that, he left Flaky in his spacious room. The girl fell silent as the warmness of his body lingered in her skin. She then embraced herself with her arms as the smile in her lips grew wider in glee. His presence was soothing, she felt like everything was going to be alright as every rumours regarding her lover will now be put into good riddance. The greatest thing about his return was that she was now certain that he was alright—he didn't leave her.

It had only been almost a minute since Flippy left her to drink a glass of water, but then her impatience started to chew her chips down, like dynamite's fuse slowly turning into ashes departing from its actual form and will soon explode. She then began to tap her right foot to somehow distract her from thinking and hoped that he would come back soon. They had a lot to talk about. They had a lot of catching up to do. But mostly, they had to be together.

When she felt the door move, she instinctively knew that it was him as she quickly opened the wooden door behind her to let the man in. Without hesitation, her eyes and hand found the dog tags hanging on his neck as she pulled him closer by pulling the said item. The man only laughed as he was playfully dragged inside the room.

"What happened to my innocent Flaky?"

"Right here beneath these clothes," she said with a seductive smile, trying to be audacious.

He chuckled in return as he was amused by her provocative behaviour. "Let's get that girl out, shall we?"

And with that, Flippy then closed the door behind him as the sound of the doorknob getting locked came afterward.

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Meanwhile in another part of town, there was a girl who was getting ready to end her shift in a café where she was working. Everybody had already gone home, she could have joined them earlier but being an obsessive compulsive that she was, the girl couldn't help but fix everything in perfect shape. As she was changing her clothes in the locker room, the sound of the bells attached to their front door started ringing, implying that the door had been opened. The sound caught her attention as she wondered who it might be. She finished putting her casual clothes on before collecting her belongings and finally leaving the locker area. After looking around and finding no one there, an unsettling sensation made her somewhat uneasy of her surroundings. With her teeth biting on the soft flesh of her lower lip, she removed her grasp on the wooden edge of the door and made careful steps towards the fuse box.

'_It was probably the wind,' _she mentally said to herself as she tried to shake the sinister ideas off from her thoughts.

The light soon turned into darkness as its source died down as she one by one turned the metal levers down. She watched the lights die and as soon as the last one had been turned off, she closed the box and secured it with a lock. Her hand lingered on the metal box, letting an amount of air escape from her mouth and formed the gentle sound of a sigh. It had been a tiresome day for all of them, but especially for her. Her being a perfectionist did well for her in many ways. Because of that characteristic, their manager had trusted her with the quality of their service that had never failed the establishment and then soon made a name for themselves. Then again, every good deed had its damage done. It made her peevish that resulted to repelling potential friends and actual friends away. She then wondered if anyone would mourn for her when death visits to end her life. Would anyone care if she was gone?

Little did she know that it was too late to pay heed to such things as her impending doom lurked beneath her shadow. She turned around to finally leave the coffee shop and return to the comfort of her home and as she did so, a certain vague figure emerged out of nowhere. The unexpected visitor made her jump and gasp in fright as her shoulder bag surrendered to gravity. Her sapphire orbs gazed upon the silhouette. Given that her eyes had adjusted to the dimness of the room, she quickly recognised who it was and it made her wonder what was the person's intention towards her.

"You... what are you... what are you doing here?" the blue haired damsel asked, waiting for a rational answer.

Her chest rose and fell as her breathing hasted in nervousness. She was utterly clueless about all of this and the discomfort of not being aware about the person's intent made her fidgety. It was so sudden and startling which made her be caught off guard and defenceless of what was to come. To her horror, a steel blade emerged in the person's hand and it glistened under the dim lights of the streets. The young lady separated her lips, ready to scream. The loud noise was then suppressed by the murderer's hand as it held her neck tightly. With all her might, she tried to fight against her fate as her feet said its final farewell to the floor. Her lungs soon felt that it was suffocating from the lack of oxygen, so she tried to use her legs in order to free herself from her oppressor. To her demise, she only made powerless strikes that didn't do anything to save her from the pain. The murderer couldn't help but laugh at her behaviour but soon got bored of the scene. With a single stab on the stomach, the girl gasped and moaned in pain as her life began to drain out from her system. After a few seconds, the same blade had embedded itself into her skin then followed by fast paced strikes into different parts of her abdomen. Her tears made her vision blurry, but the vivid mental image of her slayer had been engraved into her vanishing memory.

It wasn't the way she had imagined her death, but after reminiscing the terrible words she had thrown to different people, it made her wonder if she deserved it. Was it too late for her to mend her sins? Was it too late to apologise?

"I'm... sorry..." she was able to let out despite her blood congested throat.

The vague figure only stared at her in return. With one more fatal strike in her throat, she finally submitted to Death's grim invitation and collapsed on the blood stained floor.


	5. Chapter 3 Part 2

**Author's Note: **Haha, this chapter is still kind of short. Think of it as an extension of the former chapter to save my lazyass from getting sued.

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"What's going on?" the voice of a young lady caught the attention of the few who were familiar with it.

It was early in the morning and everyone was supposed to be doing work but then something was obviously hindering them from doing that. The crowd concealed the carnage that had awaited for her to witness. The young lady didn't expect to see a lot of people as she thought that it was just another normal day. Nonetheless, fate always knew how to astonish the unfortunate souls who fell under its command. A part of the crowd was some of her colleagues and most of them wore a mourning expression in their faces. There were also some policemen that seemed to be debating about something. Given those observations, Flaky knew in her guts that something was definitely wrong. She then fought with herself whether or not to see what caused all of that commotion. As they said, ignorance is bliss.

As she stood there, another person came dashing towards the crowd as he fought his way towards its centre. Flaky quickly recognised him as Handy who was Petunia's fiancé. Seeing the man gave her chills down her spine and although she didn't mean to know, Handy being there looking mortified with sweat dripping from his forehead meant that something bad happened to Petunia. The authorities blocked his path in order to restrain his eager resistance.

"Sir, we can't let you go any further." One of them declared.

"I need to see her," the auburn haired carpenter replied, struggling against the two strong arms holding his movements back.

"You might tamper with evidence,"

"She's my fiancée, god dammit!" he exclaimed in frustration and anger.

Handy mustered the strength to overpower the two individuals as he pushed himself onwards to the gory sight. The colour red then stunned his body as his knees suddenly went numb. Staining his cargo pants with blood, he leaned forward to Petunia's lifeless body as his mouth remained separated in disbelief. After a few seconds, the sound of crying defeated the sounds of other people's murmuring. The girl then felt the need to actually see them as she took gradual steps towards its location. The closer she went, the more nervous she got. Despite it all, the crowd gave way to provide space for her to walk on so she understood that there was no turning back.

The movement of her legs stopped when it arrived its destination, revealing the gruesome truth to her regretful psyche. The strong smell caused nausea as she tried to stop it from travelling inside her system with her hand. There was blood all over their maroon floor, something that she regretted seeing. What made it worse was the scene in front of her, with Handy crying his heart out intensified with frustration because he couldn't even embrace her for the last time due to him not having arms. She felt that it was too much and that she needed to cry in sympathy before running away from the sight. Never in her thoughts would she imagine something like this would happen to one of her acquaintances and friends. A heavy hand removed her attention from the crime scene as she quickly turned to the side to see who it was. A man wearing a blue police uniform looked down at her with dismal blue eyes as he tilted his head to the door's direction, implying that he wanted to take Flaky outside—or more specifically, away from the carnage.

"When did you get back?" she asked, trying to erase the red images away from her head by transferring her attention to the man.

"A few hours ago, haven't slept since yesterday." The blue haired man replied. "My sister called me early this morning and she was crying. I didn't even get to finish what she had to say because I already went to my garage and drove my way here."

Flaky smiled at him as she suddenly felt jealous of Giggles for having him as her brother. "You're always paranoid when it comes to your sister,"

He grinned in return and took her statement as a compliment. "Yeah, although I couldn't say I was that relieved when I found out what was actually going on."

"Do you know... what happened to her?" she asked as the distraught topic returned to haunt her thoughts.

"It was obviously murder," he replied, putting his hands on his hips as the word murder made her twitch. "She had multiple injuries resulted by stabbing and by the looks of them, they were caused by a knife. She could have survived that because it didn't hit any vital organs and her only problem was blood loss. However, the laceration in her neck was fatal."

Flaky looked down as melancholy was painted on her expression. She didn't like hearing anything regarding wounds or blood, or anything that implied death or pain. The man then removed his right hand on his hips and transferred it back to her shoulder, hoping it would lighten her up. "I had myself reassigned, so I'm going to stay for a long while. We'll find out who did this, Flaky. That criminal couldn't get away with this,"

A slim smile formed in her lips. "I bet the whole town is glad you're back, Splendid."

"So am I,"

The girl then heaved an amount of air from her lungs as she felt the need to look behind her. Everything was sunshine and rainbows before all of this, and she thought that it would remain that way. Now, she just felt torn between two events in her life. She was confused whether to be happy that Flippy and Splendid were back, or to be sad because someone she knew had died. Nonetheless, it didn't mean that the day would stop for her or anyone else.

They had to continue moving forward—for what will be gained... and for what was lost.

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The door had been opened, letting an amount of daylight flood the somewhat dark room. Soon, there emerged a girl with red hair who looked somewhat dismayed and fatigued despite the fact that it was still early.

"You forgot something?" the voice came from the other end of the room and she quickly recognised who it was.

The voice's location lured her eyes and there she saw a sitting Flippy who was reading the newspaper while enjoying a cup of hot coffee. She then sighed and went closer to him, feeling the need to be comforted by his loving arms. The girl then sat on his carpeted floor and leaned her head against his lap. As the man soon felt that something was bothering her, he put the reading material down on his side table and stroked the strands of her hair.

"Nobody wanted coffee today?" he asked.

Flaky mildly giggled before barely enlightening him with his curiosity, "There had been a... something, in the coffee shop. So the boss had to close the establishment for a while."

"What exactly happened?" Flippy felt that her bluffing statement only fuelled his interest.

"I..." Flaky lifted her head to look at the man and then her eyeballs spun around as she searched for the rights words to say. "Petunia was killed last night and, umm... they're looking for the one who did it."

"I see that you're not comfortable talking about this,"

"Petunia is... my friend," she managed to finish her sentence as she felt reluctant to use the word 'friend' to describe Petunia. "And you know that I don't enjoy talking about this kind of stuff,"

"Of course I do," Flippy replied before tangling an amount of hair strand around his fingers. "That's why I do it."

"You're quite a sadist,"

"Yeah I know,"

"Can we—"

"So how was she killed? Any potential suspects?" he quickly cut her off in order to stop her from changing the topic.

Flaky sighed in defeat as she once again landed her head on his lap. "She was stabbed to death. Splendid said that—"

"Wait, wait, wait. That _hero _is back too?" he said, somewhat surprised.

"Yes, and stop calling him that... especially when you're using it as a sarcastic remark,"

"I can't help but be offended but he'll feel worse because you don't agree that he's a hero,"

She felt that their conversation was getting to her as she rolled her eyes in annoyance. After noticing this, Flippy just laughed in amusement. "Would you rather have us talk about how or where was she stabbed?"

"You're a jerk," Flaky remarked with a snicker. But then, her amusement was soon cut off by a realisation as her head jolted upright to look at him in the eye. "Wait... how did you know Splendid's gone somewhere else?"

Flippy paused for a while as his expression changed from a tentative one into a confident one. "I just know,"

The girl fell silent as her eyes narrowed in bewilderment. Flippy was hiding something and she just knew it. Was he back sooner than she thought? Was he just right there for a while now but didn't inform anyone about his return? Whatever the answer was, she thought that it couldn't be harmful. She trusted him after all, and he proved himself to be trustworthy after a long span of time. Flippy wouldn't do something now to break the trust he had worked so hard to earn. Nevertheless, the mysterious smile in his face drew a lot of conclusions—he was definitely hiding something.

He motioned his hand towards his coffee mug and lifted it from the side table. Before finally taking a long sip, he displayed a gesture which implied that he was offering the girl his drink, "Coffee?"

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Meanwhile, in the town's police headquarters. A few men gathered in a cubicle as they contemplated about the recent homicide case which Splendid's team took responsibility of. All of them looked restless as it was still early in the day yet they were straining themselves with investigating and brain storming about the matter. To be honest, they didn't expect that such thing would happen any time in their town. Every one of its residents were born and grew up there, they also rarely had any foreigners or visitors since there wasn't really anything special in that town.

"It's quite amazing how the killer stabbed her in certain areas in which would only injure her without killing her in the process," a man wearing a police uniform had commented with the autopsy report trapped in his hand.

"What a word," another one replied to his statement in a rather annoyed tone. "Amazing? You're actually impressed with this criminal?"

"Not that I'm impressed. I'm just drawing the conclusion that the guy must have some personal motives since he—or she must have had the intent to make the victim suffer,"

All of them fell silent for a while, convinced that the guy made a point. Splendid then removed his hand away from his chin yet remained leaning against the wall where he found comfort in, "We still couldn't be certain, it could be another demented serial killer since he seems to know where to hit his targets,"

"Damn, I hate dealing with those kind of guys." The man scratched his head in irritation.

The blue haired man smiled at him and said, "Don't worry; we're not scratching your rationale off the case. Interrogate her friends and relatives, check her history too. Our guy might be an ex-boyfriend or some angry customer. Other than that, check the records if there had been any newcomer. He must be enjoying his vacation in a twisted way,"

"Alright boys," the man who was beside Splendid caught their attention soon right after. "Let's make this bastard sorry that he came to this town."

As his team left the busy room to comply with his instructions, he resumed rubbing his chin and went back into thinking. It had been a while since they had a homicide case in his hometown, so he was reassigned to a city where they needed his expertise. In fact, he never thought that he was ever going back there for professional reasons. The papers then caught his attention and took it in his hand with the intention of reading it once again. The images and words made him shake his head in dismay. Petunia, or anyone else, didn't deserve that kind of death. Everyone deserved a happy ending, given the fact that people live their lives in occasional misery—even if they themselves cause such emotions unto others.

After flipping through the pages, one image he had thoroughly observed stole his attention. At first, he thought that it was just a thin splatter of blood but as he looked closer—it was actually something else. To be certain, he brought the image closer to his face after wearing his reading glasses to clearly see every small detail. With narrowed eyes and tingling sensation, he soon realised what it actually was.

A single strand of red hair, resting on her light coloured blouse.

-To Be Continued-


	6. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **The only thing that hinders my happiness about finishing this chapter is the fact that every chapter I write means a step closer to the ending.

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**Chapter Four**

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Flaky twisted and turned as she lay on the velveteen sheets, crumpling the thin fabric by the use of her sweaty hands. She soon became exposed to the frigid night as the blanket escaped her smooth skin. Her body remained awake to reality but remained unaware that the visions of her nightmare weren't real. With a few moans coming out from her throat, beads of cold sweat fell from her forehead as she once again turned to the other side of the bed. The pouted lips and lowered eyebrows gave the impression that she was distressed and was deliberately trying to get out of the dream she was trapped in.

After a few seconds, she finally escaped from the surreal captivity as her eyes opened widely in shock. She panted for air and collected a small part of the blanket in her hands. The girl wondered why she was still having nightmares in her sleep. Usually, whenever Flippy was there she wouldn't have any dream at all—or at least it wasn't vivid enough to be remembered by the time she woke up. As her nerves and breathing began to calm down, her eyes searched for her companion but he was unfortunately nowhere to be found. Good thing she regained her sense of smell which led her to finding the one she was looking for.

The scent of cigarettes was blown inside the room as the translucent smoke found itself useful to trace its source. Flaky got out of the bed, shoving the sheets completely off her body as she travelled barefoot to the room's balcony. There she found Flippy who was reading a book while having a smoke as he sat comfortably on his rattan armchair. The green haired man sensed her presence and glanced at her before turning the page.

"What are you reading?" Flaky asked as she collected her hair with her hand and sat down on the arm rest.

"Hansel and Gretel," was his simple answer.

The girl let out a small laugh as she found it comical how her boyfriend reads that kind of book, given that it was meant for children. "Why?"

"No reason really, I was just bored." Flippy replied as he wrapped an arm around her waist, setting aside the book and the cigarette. "You know, I just realised how grim these stories are. Children getting murdered, people willing to kill just to get what they wanted."

"I guess the writer's intention was to create a euphemism of the sad reality," she said, holding the arm which secured her waist. "Although it's kind of dark to do that with children's books."

The green haired man laughed because he found it amusing that Flaky was getting disturbed, "I bet reading this kind of book somehow caused your paranoia,"

Flaky couldn't help but laugh and somehow agree to his statement. "Yeah, that and my cousin who once hid a bunch of chicks in my closet and when I opened it they were already dead from suffocation."

"Hahaha! That's nice,"

"Thank you very much for your sympathy," she let out the sarcastic remark as she rolled her eyes and frowned.

"No really, that was _genius_." he insisted as he stressed out the word 'genius'. "Why'd he do that?"

"He wanted them as a pet, but auntie won't let him keep them."

"Why didn't he just let them go?"

"He wanted them," she replied with a shrug.

Flippy paused for a moment as he seemed to be pondering about something deep. "Wanting or needing something isn't an excuse to do something irrational,"

"People are mostly blinded by greed. They get what they want without even considering the consequences of their actions," he added with a serious look in his face and with a dismal tone. "And before they come to realise it, it's actually them who gets consumed."

The girl fell silent for a while right before the mood was soon interrupted by the other's yawn. Flaky smiled as she felt a gentle squeeze on her stomach. The man then rose from his armchair as he lifted the girl up with his arms and soon carried her inside the bedroom, receiving a loud giggle from the girl.

"Hey! What are you doing?" the girl exclaimed amidst her laughs.

"I'm going to sleep. I need my pillow,"

They soon reached the bed and lay collapsed on the warm sheets.

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"Are you going to sleep any minute now?" a certain pink haired girl peeked through the opening she made when she opened the door slightly.

The man she was talking to was sitting comfortably on their couch as he meticulously stitched the buttons of his white polo shirt. After hearing the girl's voice, his eyeballs turned to her direction and soon returned his attention to the clothing.

"I'll just finish this," he replied after pushing his glasses inwards. "Go to sleep."

Giggles sighed as her head fell to the side. She didn't know where her brother was getting all his energy. He hadn't rested all day yet he still insisted to finish something that wasn't as necessary as sleeping. "What do you get from your embroidery, brother?"

Splendid chuckled. "It's some sort of an unwinding activity for me,"

The girl then decided to come closer to her brother and join him in his late night leisure. Finding the couch comfortable, she wrapped her arms around her bent knees and leaned her chin on them with her eyes glued to Splendid's needle and thread. The man tried his best to keep his concentration but his sister's awkward stare ended up troubling him. So for a split second, he took his eyes off the buttons and glanced over her just to find out that she was indeed watching him.

"What?" he asked with a soft chuckle.

"Nothing, I just find it amazing how you deal with all those kind of things..."

He then relied with his ability to multitask and continued sewing the buttons. "Things... you mean office?"

"Yeah,"

"It's nothing once you get used to it,"

"If I were you, I'll never get used to it." The girl said with a pout.

"Because you choose not to,"

Giggles grunted and blew her bangs away from her sight. "Do you have any leads regarding the one responsible for Petunia's death?"

"Not yet. We couldn't find the murder weapon either; he must've brought it home."

"Fingerprints?"

"That was a public place. There were dozens of fingerprints from various people, even if there were hand marks on her neck resulted by strangling— we didn't get any prints. Guy must've been wearing gloves," the blue haired man replied with a hint of frustration in his voice. "There was a hair strand though."

"Hair strand?" the statement caught her attention as she jolted upward in curiosity.

"Uh huh. We could run some DNA tests with that hair strand only if it wasn't because of the boyfriend—"

"Fiancé," she shot back to correct him.

"Fiancé—who tampered with evidence and had the nerve to tell us we weren't doing our job properly,"

"Come on, Splendid... he lost the most important girl in his life,"

"Yeah, I know." He rolled his eyes. "But we're not being paid to be shouted at either,"

Giggles laughed with his statement then the sound soon faded as the thought of Petunia's death got to her. She fell silent for a while as she seemed to think about something grim before finally saying, "I still can't believe she's gone,"

After noticing the amount of sadness compressed into her sentence, he put aside the shirt and came to sit beside her before saying, "Life is a vulnerable essence, and it can end anywhere—anytime. It's amazing how we get through one day without getting harmed."

The girl turned her head to the side to look at her brother before she let him to continue, curious of what he had to say.

"What I'm saying is that, don't remember her death; remember how she lived her life with you."

She smiled with what her brother said as she leaned her head against his broad shoulder. "Did they teach you that in the academy?"

"What?"

"Giving encouraging speeches?"

"Nah, it's my talent."

Giggles brightened up and smiled, receiving an affectionate stare from Splendid as he smiled to himself before giving her a pat on the head.

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The loud recorded sounds of gunfire and turmoil echoed throughout the vicinity as the deserted area remained at peace. There were no lights, no people, only the geek that lurked inside his dim lit untidy room. The young man chewed on his gum as his sweaty fingers pressed on the buttons, controlling the soldier in his favourite video game. It was the usual thing that he always did during that kind of day and hour. Other people envied him for being carefree, never minding anyone or anything—only himself. The few others pitied him nonetheless, for he had no real friends who would spend that time with him. But he ignored those comments because he didn't feel miserable. He saw them as only envious of the purity of his happiness. He was better off alone rather than trying to communicate with people who only saw him as different, in a weird way that was. People were stereotypical and shallow, they only see what they wanted to see and believe in what they wanted to believe. Yet, the hypocritical truth remained in his genes.

Nutty grunted in aggravation as he was shot by his virtual enemy and soon threw the controller away after getting killed. Those games had controlled his emotions and although he denied it, it almost controlled his life. The reason for that was, he found his life boring so he tried to find refuge into something that wasn't real. His life had no wars, no fighting, no need for his adrenaline to function... no reason. He then stared at the screen as his eyes mirrored the word: 'Continue?'

He snickered as he wished he had second chances like that in real life.

The young man rose from sitting on the ground as he removed his lime coloured jacket in the process. After sloppily throwing it without caring where would it land, he motioned his feet towards his bedroom door and made his way to the kitchen. On his way, he spotted his open window and took the opportunity to spit his gum away and the pink coloured thing then landed on the grass covered soil. Stretching his limbs, he yawned without even covering his mouth as his eyes secreted an amount of tears. It wasn't a long day, no reason to be tired, but Nutty felt otherwise. Every day was a tiresome contemplation about how would he spend it and how would it end. And every day that passed him by; he felt that he was running out of options. Other people thought that he was living an easy life, but what they had missed was the fact that it was better getting tired of doing something rather than getting tired of thinking about what to do.

Searching through the haphazard compilation of various kitchen utensils and plates, he soon found the small cauldron that he was going to make use of to heat another pack of Chè . The said dish was a traditional Vietnamese sweet soup, and it was also the most convenient thing to eat since you can either eat it hot or cold. Nutty, nonetheless, wanted to awaken his senses and figured to use the hot temperature to cure his spiraling somnolence. As he tapped his bare foot on the tiled floor, he tried his best to be patient while waiting for the pot to be filled with water. It wasn't a long wait, the problem was his impatience was quicker to be filled and run out of space. Reaching the amount of water he needed, he took the item out of the sink before turning the sink off and began cooking the dish. Due to his incapability to keep things organised and functioning, it took him an amount of needed turns before the stove produced a blue coloured flame.

He puckered his lips as he leaned against the wooden table behind, with his golden hazel eyes watching the fire dance in random directions. Nutty didn't give much damn about pondering his life—letting things come and go as they were. He wasn't miserable, but he wasn't being productive at the same time. The only dilemma he suffered from was boredom. He took so much time dealing with himself and the things that would make him happy, everything about his life was about himself. It was a gift not to know how or when your life will end. It was a curse not to know how will your life be spent.

When he became tired with the repetitive scene, he removed his hands on the table and set off for the bathroom to take a piss. He stood there, still wearing the same expression in his face that was caused by him losing the game and when he was about to finish, his eye caught something move. Some people would often ignore it as they consider it just as a hallucination. Nutty would do the same if it wasn't because of the colourful trail on his floor which he saw when he tilted his head to the side. With a now zipped trousers and bewildered look, he marched slowly towards the trail and as he went closer—he realised that those colourful things were actually sugar coated chocolates called M&Ms. The candies lay on the floor and made an imaginary line towards the room upstairs. The young man was utterly clueless about how the candies got there; he was certain they weren't there before he went out of his room. Curiosity helped him to make the choice to follow the trail and find out what was going on.

_'What the hell is this_?' The wooden steps creaked as it carried his weight and he soon found himself standing in front of the opened door. The room was dark for it didn't have any windows that would provide access for the street lights' illumination. Nonetheless, the sweet trail seemed to stop when he reached its centre. Everything was rather normal; some boxes with contents of the unwanted things he was meant to throw away but didn't have the time. Nutty looked around as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, there was nothing else that seemed peculiar except for the trail that remained near his toes. He thought that he would be able to find answers as soon as he set foot in that room, what he didn't know was that—all he had to do was wait.

He was about to give up and leave the area when the unexpected banging sound startled him, making the young man jump. After realising that the door had been closed, he ran to it then tried to re-open the door. To his demise, the door knob barely budged and he soon became aware of the fact that he was trapped. Nutty panted heavily as he was now nervous of what was to become of him inside the dreaded room. He tried calling for help, expecting to wake the neighbourhood up so they would come and save him from his predicament. But, given that the room didn't have any windows or any other openings, the sounds he made were suppressed by the thick four walls that surrounded him.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, the water he had left behind began to boil as the hot air bubbles clumsily threw small and scattered amount of water away from the cauldron. As the temperature rose, the water became more violent as it was now pouring out of the metal container. The water soon overpowered and successfully extinguished its competitor. Within minutes, the room was flooded by the strong reek of the flammable substance and reached its potential helper—electricity.

It wasn't long before Nutty's sounds of screaming had been replaced by the ear-wrecking explosion, and that had finally caught the attention of his sleeping neighbours.

-To Be Continued-


	7. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

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"Enlighten me,"

The crowd was successfully distracted as the figure emerged from the ashes and thick fog. They immediately recognised the man as one of them greeted him by passing a load of papers and photos. The blue haired man gave him a look before transferring his attention to the papers and skimming the said item. It was very late or early, depending on how you look at it, and he hadn't slept. His eyes gave the impression that he was exhausted, even though his body told otherwise. Sometimes he colleagues wondered how could he channel his energy or where was it coming from. The man sighed, repressing the yawn that was threatening to escape his mouth. The captured images of burnt skin and suffering made his head ache for some reason.

"What caused the fire?" he asked without removing his gaze on the photographs.

"Recklessness, I guess. He left the kitchen unattended and..." the man replied, letting his voice come out from his nose which implied that he wasn't interested. "Whole house was a mess. Clothes, boxes, almost everything on the floor. His house was practically a matchbox,"

"Mhm. But that doesn't mean he's not attentive enough to know that something was wrong before or after the fire started," Splendid said, giving the other a suggestive look. "How'd he get trapped in that room?"

The man appeared to be dumbfounded and fell silent for a while before recalling the answers Splendid wanted to know, "The house was in bad shape. I guess the doorknob malfunctioned in the wrong time,"

"You're suggesting it's a coincidence?" he chuckled conceitedly. "If there's anything that I have actually learned from the Academy, it's the fact that nothing happens by chance."

"Yeah, like that one time in the office where you—"

"Something must've caused the door knob to lock from the outside," Splendid quickly cut him off as a hint of colour pink crept in his cheeks. The other man only laughed at his reaction.

With careful steps, his movements took him to the window parallel to the stairs leading to the room where the body was found. His thoughts almost blinded him if it wasn't because of his sharp and inquisitive eyesight. Something caught his eye and lured him closer to the bottom window frame—there were horizontal marks carved in the wood, and they were noticeable enough because the paint was scratched off. Splendid leaned and brought his eye into its level, then he felt that he needed to use more than his sense of sight in order for him to know more. He removed his rubber glove and rubbed his skin against the marks as his colleague noticed this and came closer to check up on him.

"What'd you find?" he asked, leaning his back against the murky wall.

"There are marks in here, caused by... probably a wire or fishing line?" Splendid replied as he glanced over to the tree branch, tracking the horizontal traces from the window frame. When he noticed similar marks, he pointed at it and added, "There are marks on that branch too."

After getting the other's attention, the man removed his back away from the wall and went closer to see for himself. "That's cool,"

The blue haired man looked at him and grinned, "Yeah. Accidents are boring, aren't they?"

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Flaky sat on the cold doorstep where she exasperatingly brushed her boot, hoping that the thing she was trying to get rid of will be removed soon. She honestly didn't know where she got that sticky material, but it was certainly controlling her emotions because it was hindering her from leaving on time. The man behind her noticed this as he was preparing his morning coffee and the scene made him laugh. Flippy always found it cute whenever she was getting frustrated.

"Trouble in paradise?" Flippy asked to catch her attention as he was pouring the hot liquid into his coffee mug.

The girl glanced over her shoulder and found him smirking which made her groan. "There's a bubblegum on my boot,"

The green haired man took a short sip before asking, "Where are you going?"

"Splendid sent me a text message," she replied, returning her attention to the boot and resumed brushing. "Says he wanted to have coffee with me and talk about something."

"It's a date slash interrogation, then?" he remarked before taking another sip and sitting on his favourite chair.

The girl gave him a sharp glare which only made him laugh as he added, "What? The guy doesn't know how to switch off. There must be something he wants from you,"

"Like what?" the bubblegum was starting to be erased from the face of her boot.

"I don't know. Your bra size—perhaps," Flippy drowned his sardonic remark into his coffee.

"Flippy, the only thing that Splendid liked about me was my vulnerability against everything." She began to brush in a faster pace as she was getting somewhat thrilled that the gum was coming off.

"Yeah. You're the damsel in distress material," his mocking continued. "Also, you have a pretty face and a twenty-four inch waistline."

"He _doesn't _like me that way,"

"Yup, you're right. He _somehow_ likes you that way,"

_'Unbelievable,' _Flaky groaned loud enough to be heard. "This is blowing my mind,"

"Can I come, then?" he asked with a curious tone.

Flaky seemed to be somewhat surprised after processing what he just said. "What?"

"Can I come so I can slap to his face that you're taken,"

"No," the word came out smoothly and loudly, followed by a short hearty laugh.

"Interesting," he said with narrowed eyes and smirking lips.

Flaky sighed in disbelief as his statement interrupted her victory cry when the bubblegum had been completely removed. "Fine, come with me."

"No," he took another sip.

The girl rolled her eyes and stood up to wear her leather boot and then took her hands to her hips to create the impression that she was getting annoyed. "What do you really want, Flippy?"

"I'm trying to ruin your morning in order to make mine,"

"Thanks for the honesty,"

"I know. I promised, right?"

She bent her knees and took something from the ground, moulding the material with her hands. "How about another promise,"

Flippy took his eyes off from his coffee to her as he waited for the girl to continue.

"Promise me you won't be a jerk anymore," she said with a serious look painted all over her face.

The green haired man paused for a moment with separated lips. He then took his coffee mug before muttering a, "No,"

"I knew you would say that," She said with a grin as she gripped the ball of gum with her index finger and thumb. The girl then aimed for the man's coffee mug and threw the said item in perfect angle and speed to reach it.

As he was ready to flood his mouth with warm bitter coffee, the liquid splashed on his face caused by the impact of the ball to the liquid. His eyes closed shut to protect themselves from being burned—nonetheless, his skin and favourite camo shirt suffered greatly from the stains and temperature. The man then pursued to give her a glare of annoyance. "It's. _On_."

"Haha, I still got it." The girl remarked with a snicker, referring to her skills in sports. "See you this afternoon."

Before completely leaving the house, she stopped halfway and shouted something. "Oh, and I left your lunch in the fridge. Love you!"

"Right," The man only rolled his eyes then stared at the floating ball of disgusting gum and dirt in his coffee.

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As she walked her way to their meeting place, she noticed that the street's ambience was somewhat odd. Mainly because she hadn't gone out for a while because for the past few months, she spent her days inside her house after work. She thought that the people around her somehow exchanged glances when she passed by. Given her paranoid nature, she deduced that they were talking about her. Flaky didn't know any reason why would they do that, but the people in their town didn't need any valid reason to talk about something or someone. They only needed mild but interesting details to raise questions and rumours, never minding if those information weren't true. As she tried her best to ignore their awkward stares and gibberish murmuring, she soon found herself in front of the establishment where Splendid said they would meet. After letting out an amount of air from her lungs, she pushed the glass door and let herself in. Her eyes searched for the familiar blue hair amongst the few people who were inside and soon found him sitting in a corner. Reaching the man, she noticed his swollen eye bags which he probably tried to remedy with a cup of hot coffee. Splendid soon sensed her presence and gave her a warm smile.

"So... what do you want to talk about?" the girl asked as she sat on the chair, parallel to where the man sat.

Splendid collected the jumbled papers on the table to put them aside before answering, "I heard from your friends that Flippy was back,"

"How is he?" he added as he stared at her ruby eyes.

The red haired girl felt uncomfortable that Splendid was asking about Flippy, so she was somewhat hesitant to answer his question. "He's... fine,"

"Yeah? When did he get back?"

"Are you..." Flaky breathed the words as if she wasn't meant to do that. She then decided to be cooperative of his purpose for she didn't think that he was up to something, and that she had nothing to hide. "About two days ago, why?"

The man felt something in his brain that he usually felt whenever he got something right. "Two days ago, Petunia was killed in the coffee shop."

"Yes... I know that, but... what does it have to do with him?" the young lady was then beginning to get irritated when she realised that Splendid was trying to imply something rude.

"Flaky, I know that you're aware that he just came from the war. It's possible that his illness went back, and now—"

"No, he's with me all the time. I can assure you that he had nothing to do with it," she quickly cut him off with a hint of infuriation in her tone.

Splendid wasn't ready to give up and found another way to convince the girl. "Yesterday, Nutty was killed."

She was silenced with the revelation he just unveiled to her as she couldn't believe it was true. "Nutty's... dead?"

The law-enforcer only nodded once, affirming his previous statement.

"H-how...?" she asked not in curiosity but in concern with a mournful accent.

"He was killed in a fire,"

Flaky held her seat as she tried her best to keep her composure despite the dreadful news. She considered Nutty as her best friend. Even though people said that Nutty only befriended her because she can bake, she knew that Nutty was connecting with her somehow. They understood each other and shared memories. Now, she just couldn't accept the fact that they couldn't see each other again. What intensified her anguish was that the last memory they shared wasn't pleasant at all. Flaky wished she could take back the past so she could atone for her mistakes towards the guy—she wished he was still alive. After thinking about it, she realised how she became too blinded with her intimacy towards Flippy. Was she neglecting her friends?

"Flaky, I understand what you're going through and I know that you love him." Splendid tried to distract her from thinking. "But I just want to protect the town, my sister... and you,"

The recent deaths had yet to unveil the reason behind their loss, and it wasn't a good reason for Splendid to try and show his affection towards her. To top it all off, he was trying to incline her beloved to something he couldn't had possibly done. This crude charade had to stop.

"I don't need protection," she retorted in defence of herself and her lover. "Is it so hard to believe that he had nothing to do with this? Is it so hard to let us be happy?"

In preparation to leave, she rose from the chair and gave him a heart-wrenching glare. "I appreciate your help, but Flippy isn't the one you're looking for."

Splendid could only sigh as he felt somewhat upset from receiving those words from her. As he watched her footsteps, the man felt the need to stop her although he knew he couldn't. "Flaky, wait!"

The girl flinched after hearing her name and felt the need to stop herself from leaving to give him one last look, "I really hope you find the one who's behind this,"

And with that, Splendid was once again—left behind.

The crowd slowly distorted and soon faded as Flaky moved her feet without having any exact destination. Her recent conversation with Splendid made her think about many things. She couldn't deny that Flippy was acting a bit strange since he got back. He wasn't telling anything about the army or the war, and when she tried to open up the topic—Flippy would quickly avoid it and talk about her instead. He also seemed to know about the things that he couldn't possibly know unless he was actually home for the past few months. Nonetheless, all those things were only the information which she already knew. After reminiscing about certain things, it made her question her faith in him and his integrity towards her. Was he hiding something from her? If yes, then why? Why would he hide something like that when Flaky already knew that he had problems with his mental health?

She had to admit to herself that Splendid somehow made a point. Flippy's date of return and Petunia's death was deeply synchronised to be coincidental. To top it all off, their town was peaceful and their only problem were the kleptomaniac twins who robbed a few stores and even banks during that span of time. Flaky then found a bench along the way and decided to take a rest from walking so she could concentrate more in thinking. The girl sighed and leaned forward as she held her hands together to support her chin. She had a lot to think about—questions that she was too afraid to ask and was too cowardly to know the answers.

What if Splendid was right? What if someday, he'll kill her too?

Closing her eyes shut, she felt the need to erase the mental images away from her mind as she replaced them with darkness. She used to be afraid of the dark, but now she preferred it more than the light. The light cast numerous shadows, made her aware of what was to come. She wondered if she could do the same for her problems, be ignorant of them until it strikes her and kills her in the end. The ending would be the same, but the latter would be less painful. Maybe she was a coward for not choosing to fight against it, but for her it was the one of the few courageous things that she will ever do.

Flaky couldn't choose between life and death, but she would lie if she didn't admit that she was scared.

Nevertheless, she wanted to be oblivious of the truth, whether it would hurt her or not—because she wanted to be with him... and that was all that mattered.

With this in thought, she marched her way back home with an uneasy smile.

-To Be Continued-

* * *

**Author's Note: **You guys are gonna hate me for the ending... I can sense it. So I might as well wear my bullet proof vest as early as now. And oh yeah, I made a cover art. Which is really nothing. I forced my lazyass to do this and covered the mistakes with a gigantic texture. Hahahaha, anyway.. here's the link:

http : / / yllaella . deviantart . com / art / HTF - White - Lies - 203349473

This fanfiction is about to end, just three more chapters and it's done. It's been nice writing about this, I've learned a lot. I haven't edited the last few chapters because I start on the new one right away. I'll edit it once I finish writing about the whole story. I just want to thank you guys who's been patient with me, hopefully until the very end.


	8. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

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_'Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, _

_and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer!' Then God will send you life again. _

_Will you go, will you go?'_

The murmured words inside her mind narrated the novel that she was currently reading. Reading was one of her favourite past time, especially during the night, for it was something that made her tired and eventually made her fall asleep. Crime and Punishment, a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was the novel she was reading. It wasn't obvious to a lot of people but, Giggles was fascinated with the book's concept as much as her brother did. Maybe, what influenced her with it in the first place was her brother's constant utterance of his own interests. With her front leaned against the soft mattress of her bed, she would constantly move her left leg back and forth as it pointed upward in mid air. She was ready to turn to the next page when she felt something weird from behind. It was maybe her animal instinct that told her something was odd. Half-heartedly, she turned her head towards the veranda's location and waited for something to happen. Along with the darkness, there emerged a somewhat vague figure of a hand holding onto the fences. It made the girl jump in fright as her panicky hands reached for the side table drawer. Before she could do anything violent, she recognised the emerged blonde hair and soon his face. The cheerful young man grunted as he raised himself up and made his way past the fences.

"You know, you shouldn't leave the door open." He stated his observation in between the sounds of his panting.

The girl rolled her eyes in reaction to his remark. "Thanks for the concern. But if I did, you wouldn't be able to get in."

"Yeah, I could use a welcome banner next time." He replied and then received a laugh from the girl.

"You should have at least texted me instead of scaring me like that," she slapped him in the shoulder after getting out of her bed.

"It's called a surprise, Giggles." he tried to defend himself as he took his rubber shoes off and threw them carelessly in a corner. "Besides, I thought you could use some company."

She smiled cheerfully and admitted to herself that what he said was true. Although she wasn't that scared, it bothered her that something might happen to her after what had happened in the past few days.

"OK, Cuddles. Let's go to the living room," she instructed and took his hand to drag him downstairs.

The blonde retorted in return as he was thwarted that they were going there instead of staying in the bed room—where he imagined finally getting intimate with the girl.

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The noise of metal keys colliding with wood sounded amongst the darkness of the night. There were no lights, but there were distant shadows that lie beneath oblivion. Flaky, nonetheless, felt safe in that place she called sanctuary. She knew every corner and crook of that place as she was protected by its sovereign. As she entered Flippy's home, she took off her boots and left them lying on the doorstep before opening the front door and letting herself in. Knowing that she came home later than she expected, the girl thought that Flippy was already asleep for the lights weren't turned on. Her legs wandered without having the tendency to stray and soon found herself in front of the refrigerator. Her dry throat and limp body made her thirsty as the image of pitchers appeared to her after opening the refrigerator door. Reaching out for the container, her eyes caught something familiar. With that in sight, she sighed mildly in remorse.

"You're late," a voice came out of nowhere.

Flaky quickly recognised the deep voice as she took a glass from the kitchen sink to pour the water into. And without turning to the owner of that voice, she said before drinking. "You didn't eat your lunch,"

The masculine figure came closer as he crossed his arms after reducing their distance from each other. "I wasn't hungry,"

As the girl hinted a level of resentment in his tone, she finally turned to him and left the empty glass to where it was from. She reached out and leaned on his chest, hoping that she could send signals to somehow ease his anger. It wasn't long before she noticed, and she thought that it was all so strange—she couldn't feel his heartbeat. Flippy, on the other hand, didn't do anything to compliment her affection.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered softly, but the sound was loud enough to be heard.

Flippy used his hand to raise her chin for him to be able to see her face, and then witnessed her pouted lips and apologetic expression. The emerald shade began to brew and dissolve the golden lustre along with the coldness of his aura. When his nerves began to calm, she held her closer but remained silent.

"You wanna eat? I'll cook something," she said, trying to fight against the unbearable silence.

"No," he simply replied.

"I'm sorry, Flippy..." she apologised again, insisting to have a conversation. "Are you mad at me?"

"You're apologising too much again," he tried to change the subject.

"...because I feel like I did something wrong,"

"You didn't,"

"Then... what's bothering you?"

"Nothing is," he replied as if he didn't think about it and the words hastily fled from his mouth.

He felt that their conversation wasn't going anywhere and he wanted to end it right away. After gently pushing her away for her to let go of him, he went to sit on the chair which was next to the window. Flaky remembered that he used to drag his chair next to that very window every time he had gotten angry; he thought that the cold air was calming and solemn which he hoped would sink in into his thoughts to remove the gruesome images away. The girl's stubborn nature told her to keep on struggling to understand his feelings as she held herself responsible. She was utterly clueless about what was bothering him that time, all she knew was that she was probably the one who caused it. Flippy was a territorial animal, it wasn't the first time he got jealous of someone else. His calm self would try to hide or deny it, but when he loses it—he would do something harsh. Having an experience about it in the past, the girl then thought that she should do something about it before it gets worse. Chary movements took her closer to him, and even when she was already in front of him, Flippy remained looking away. Like an innocent child trying to tame a cat, she knelt in front of him and stared.

"I'm sorry if I didn't call to say that I was going to be late," she tried to redeem herself with an apologetic statement.

"It's alright. I know that you were busy," Flippy leaned his chin on his fist as the armrest supported his elbow.

Flaky closed her eyes, crumpling her once smooth forehead. Being reminiscent of her recent confrontation with the mentioned man made her optimism fade away. "Splendid and I didn't talk that much. I left right away,"

Her statement caught his attention and he quickly turned his eyeballs to her. "Why?"

"He said such things... that I didn't like," Tension rose and she tried to sustain it by creasing her oversized grey sweater.

The idea her sentence brought to his sceptical mind made his eyes narrow as his chin left his hand. "What did he say? Did he do anything to you?"

"No, it's not like that." She quickly vouched for Splendid. "It was something about the recent killings,"

"What does it have to do with you?"

"He..." Flaky felt reluctant to say the truth. "He suspects that... you... did it."

Flippy chuckled through his nose as a hint of smirk lingered in his lips. "Of course he would,"

Crimson eyes darkened as they were glued to the floor. "Flippy..."

"Hm?" he returned his gaze back to the swaying branches of the trees outside his house.

It was a long silence for Flaky when she came into thinking the suitable words to be said. She tried her best to avoid conversing about the matter but knowing Flippy, he would do anything to get the information out of her... especially since it concerned him. Her broken relationships with her friends was hard enough to cope with, she can't commit any more mistakes that would result to another crumbling bond.

Nonetheless, the girl was only able to let out broken words as Flippy felt that his patience began to drain, so then he decided to say the words instead. "You think I have something to do with it?"

"N-no!" she stuttered in her lie.

"Come on, lying to me won't make me feel better."

"I'm... s-sorry," her tears started to dwell in her eyes as she suffered from disgrace.

As she regretted opening the topic up, the girl fell silent as she was afraid to say anything further that might hurt him even more. Tears became heavier and fell from her half lidded eyes. With all the sincerity in the world, she was faithfully relying to Flippy's capacity to keep a promise. He wouldn't lie or hide anything from her. In fact, he wouldn't do anything that would hurt her in the first place. She then regretted meeting with Splendid and talking to him about the matter for it just resulted to the unwanted raised questions. Flaky closed her eyes shut and let the tears fall in order to get rid of the regretful thoughts as her hands were formed into fists. After noticing her reaction, Flippy could only sigh and held her shoulder to console the girl.

"This shouldn't bother you," he assured her.

"They were my friends, Flippy..."

"Why should they matter? They obviously didn't know what that word meant,"

Flaky jolted upward as she blared, "That doesn't mean I should hate them or not care when they're gone!"

He was taken aback with the sudden change in her aura and fell silent for a little while before the sharp words pierced through her heart. "What if I'm the one who's gone?"

The sentence lingered within her conscience and the longer it stayed, the more it mocked her. It made her realise and imagine how it would be if Flippy was the one who's dead instead of Petunia and Nutty. The devastating idea made her cringe as the excruciating images of her recent nightmares decided to haunt her once more. The colourless liquid splattered on the skin of her hands with her head bowed down in lament. It was dreadful for her to give the idea that she cared more for her friends than she did for Flippy. As her sobs repressed the words back, the only remaining option left was to make use of her actions in order to communicate with him. With trembling shoulders and failing voice, she embraced him and muffled broken words of apologies with the pure intention to redeem herself with her recent mistake as Flippy gently stroked her hair as a sign of acceptance.

"We're here... the only thing that should matter is _us_," the words he evoked hypnotised her fragile state of mind.

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The unpredicted sound of the phone's ringing interrupted the movie as they were watching it. Cuddles sighed in disbelief as he was taken a back from laying his arm above the girl's shoulder. Without warning, Giggles stood up and answered the phone in loud speaker.

"Hello?" her distant voice made its way through the line as she gestured a command to Cuddles, asking him to turn the television's volume down.

"Hey, it's me." The girl recognised her brother's voice.

"Hey, Splendid. Are you coming home any time soon?"

"No, that's why I called." He said with a groan. "I won't be home until tomorrow. Things suddenly became chaotic here in the office,"

Cuddles grinned in delight which she found funny and couldn't help but snicker.

After letting out a long yawn he went back to stating his business. "So don't wait for me and close the doors and windows,"

"By the way, Giggles. I left the stun gun in your side table drawer," he added.

"Don't worry brother, I got it all covered."

"No, I'm talking about that guy beside you." Splendid referred to Cuddles as the young man, on the other hand, started to become nervous. "Hey, you. If something happens to my sister, I'll shove that stun gun up your—"

"Splendid! I got it, I got it." She quickly cut him off and laughed nervously as the young man beside her started to hyperventilate.

"Alright, I'll be home tomorrow."

"OK,"

The girl paused for a while then called his name like a whisper, "And Splendid..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're my brother,"

Splendid fell silent as he didn't expect those words to come out from his sister's mouth and he honestly didn't know what to say.

"I love you," she added.

"I love you too," he replied and couldn't help but smile as he did.

Although Splendid was deeply flattered about his sister's statement, he couldn't help but wonder why she suddenly said those things with an unexpected timing. As he tried to clear his mind in order to focus into something else, he leaned on his desk and closed his eyes. A few things bothered him enough that day, he shouldn't dwell too much in insignificant things. The small talk he and Flaky shared didn't clear his suspicions. He always thought that criminals will never change, and so did Flippy. Flaky was merely blinded by her affection and feelings towards the man that altered her judgment. Feeling that his head was starting to ache, he opened his sapphire orbs and stared at the papers beside him. It frustrated the man that he knew they were all homicide cases yet they couldn't be sure who the murderer was. The hair he found in Petunia's photographs made him think that it was Flaky's. Given that Flippy and Flaky were together, the strand must've gotten stuck to his clothing and then transferred to Petunia. Second was Nutty's incident; given that the guy had a reckless nature, there was nothing more to do than to trap him and wait for his own oil to boil and cook him. The crime won't work if the murderer didn't know Nutty's personally.

It was all clear to him, Flippy had done it. All he had to do was to prove that he did.

With that in mind, he wondered if he was being blinded by his own personal grudge against Flippy. Was he being unfair? Was he forgetting his original desire to keep their town peaceful with the desire to keep Flippy in jail? He was clearly confused with his own principles and beliefs, but he had to make the killings stop. If Flippy didn't do it, then the truth would prevail sooner or later. He couldn't risk the safety of the people just because he didn't want to hurt Flaky. He had to do something, and he didn't care anymore if his relationship with her was hanging by a thread.

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Cuddles frowned in irritation as he was watching some romantic movie in television while he was alone. The pink haired girl had left him alone in the living room as she went upstairs to take a quick shower. His annoyance was then intensified by the irony of the scene in the movie as they were being all mushy and everything. Reaching for the remote control, he leaned his back against the leather couch before pushing the 'Off' button.

It had already been months since Giggles agreed to be in a relationship with him, but the two never had any intimate connection with each other ever since. Giggles was a conservative girl who had a Policeman for a brother, so he wasn't expecting that things would get easy between them. His patience spanned for a long while but he was hopeful of the idea that someday he will get to even hold her hand. Cuddles was a spontaneous young man who knew how he could get a good time. He didn't care much about his own welfare as long as he could be happy, even if sometimes he could get hurt from his adventurous ideas. Courting Giggles was a lot of pain, and it was an adventure for him. Given all the hardships he had experienced through competing with her many other suitors, he was so sure that he would get what he deserved after Giggles chose him. Little did he know that the competition still continued even if he had gained Giggles' sweet 'Yes'.

From being silenced, the Television's halted noises gave way to the sounds of pouring water from the higher floor. Cuddles found it relaxing to hear the calming sound of something that resembled the rain, although it didn't wear his impatience out. Just when he was about to think about something, the sound of his ringing tone caught his attention and reached out for his jacket's pocket to take his cell phone from inside. After reading the caller's name, he pushed the answer button and took the phone to his ear.

"What's up, buddy?" he said with a cheerful tone.

The person on the other line remained in silence but he heard some thudding noises and Cuddles was left confused as he repeated himself. "Toothy, man, you there?"

The noises became louder, giving the impression that it was getting closer. The blonde became anxious about all this and assumed that something must be wrong, and before he could even jump into conclusions, he heard his friend's disturbing sound of panting and gasping like he was being chocked—and then there was nothing.

The blonde was silenced with a dropped jaw and trembling hands as he was dumbfounded with what he had heard. Toothy wasn't the type who would play pranks on him, it was usually the other way around. He then had the optimistic thought that Toothy was just toying with his mind as an act of vengeance towards the other.

"That's not funny, man..." he stuttered as he tried his best to keep his composure. "Toothy. Come on, I know you're in there."

As he was now aggravated with him, he pushed the button to drop his call. Yet, the disconcerting sounds disturbed him to the utmost intensity as he couldn't help but sweat his nervousness out. A part of him was worried about his friend and another part was angry because it might just be a horrible prank. After gaining the amount of courage to check his friend up, he dialled his number—but to his demise, nobody answered.

_'You are so dead tomorrow,_' he said to himself as he listened to the sound of ringing and waited for Toothy to answer his cell phone, tapping his foot in impatience.

The young man made five attempts and after giving up, he sighed loudly and stared at his phone.

What could've happened to him was all he could ask, and there was no other way to know but to find it out for himself.

-To Be Continued-

* * *

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the late update. I had a lot of things to fix with my personal life... and yes, I do have one.

**Replies to Reviews:**

**Juney-chan, **it's more like... just a revelation than what I would call tragedy.

**Cece, **the answer to your questions is... Yes. I will continue writing. I have actually thought about another storyline while I was writing this fanfiction. But, it would take a little while before I could complete the plot and I need a little break from writing.

The rest, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it and consider them as an inspiration.


	9. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

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The fluorescent light flickered as it attracted moths from outside, finding their way through the open window. Under its illumination was a blonde young man who had himself frozen whilst sitting on the couch where he argued with himself. Should he go to his friend's residence to check if he's alright? Should he waste an opportunity with the girl he loved by someone who might just be playing a prank on him? As Cuddles swore that he'll strangle Toothy once he knew that he was fooling him, he clenched his fists and rose from sitting. To let his girlfriend know about his plan, he went upstairs and knocked on her room's door. He was still struggling with his decision, but Cuddles was like that. Once he got himself into the situation, he would deal with it without any preparation but will definitely face it nonetheless. With his fist colliding with wood, he knocked on the door thrice as the sounds it made reached Giggles' bathroom area for its door was left open. When Cuddles paused for a while and noticed that Giggles wasn't answering, he knocked on it again and finally she responded to his call.

"Yeah?" she spoke loudly as she could for Cuddles to be able to hear her.

"Hey, I'm going to Toothy's." He replied with a rather gloomy tone. "He just called me and... well, there's something up."

"What? Toothy? What happened?" the girl turned the shower knob to silence the water's noises.

"I don't know, that's why I'm going there to find out."

"Wait for me, I'm going too!"

"Giggles, I don't think you should—"

"I said, wait. OK? I'm nearly done." She insisted and turned the knob again to continue showering.

Cuddles let out a sigh of defeat as he lightly banged the door with his forehead. There was no way he could win against such an eager young lady, and he wasn't up for telling her what he heard on the phone. Knowing that he had no choice but to take Giggles with him, he decided to come down and wait for her in the living room as he tried to distract himself from thinking. Sitting on the couch, he flipped his cell phone as he threw it in the air and then catching it once gravity pulled it down. He repeated this process as his hazel orbs chased his phone. Although he was doing that as a distraction, he couldn't help but ponder about certain things. The young man was aware that there was danger here and there, especially the fact that there were recent killings of his friends. He knew nothing that Toothy could have done to aggravate anyone, and neither did he. So there was no other reason for the killer to choose them as a target unless he was a serial killer who was murdering anyone for his own entertainment. Cuddles didn't mind that kind of criminal whenever he sees them on TV for it didn't disturb or concern him. But now that the killer might be just a door away—he was, for the first time, afraid for his life.

After being a klutz for not being able to catch his cell phone as it dropped and then bounced on the floor, he removed his thoughts and went to look for the said item. On all fours, he searched for his phone in every nook and cranny of the area as he tried to remember where its last thud resounded from. His memory lead him to some sort of side table but was a bit larger for its kind and made his arm go its way under it. Blindly searching for it, his hand finally touched something and he recognised its texture and shape. He took the item and soon revealed itself to him as he smiled in delight for reuniting with his phone. After dusting its screen with his fingers, a single drop of red liquid landed and replaced the dusts he just brushed off. With a horrifying sensation and crumpled forehead, he lifted his head slowly as traces of the same liquid pouring on the side table revealed itself to his eyes. Guessing it was blood, he knew that something was definitely wrong and couldn't stop himself from unveiling the truth. Once his head was completely looking upwards, there lay a jaw dropping sight—it was Toothy, looking down at him with half of his body leaning on the window frame and side table as his blood poured from his toothless mouth.

For a moment, he was freezing there in shock before his nerves was finally able to regain grasp of his body as he jumped backwards, landing painfully on the floor. The young man used his arms to pull himself further and soon reached the back side of the leather couch as he couldn't take his eyes away from Toothy's mutilated body. He was in denial of the truth and considered that day a dream gone bad. It was alright a few minutes ago, he and Giggles would spend the night together without anything going wrong. That was his original plan. That was the scene that was supposed to happen. Not this—definitely not this. And before he could do anything else, a loop of metal wire slowly went down below his chin. Cuddles was too horrified to even move or protect himself thus, the wire was then wrapped around his neck to choke him. Within seconds, he breathed the last oxygen that he could before his sight faded into white nothingness.

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Giggles remained oblivious of the gruesome scene that had awaited her downstairs. Without any hint of suspicion, she washed the shampoo away from her hair with warm water with her head tilted upward. The girl liked the feeling of being soaked in the warmness of the water. It somehow washed everything away—her worries, her problems, anything that burdened her. It was maybe one of the reasons why she remained so friendly with everyone, for the only thing that would make any negative vibes away was a warm shower. Never in her thoughts would she imagine that it could be the very same thing that would hurt and possibly kill her. Water was a symbol of cleansing—not death. Little did she know, the next thing that will happen to her may prove her otherwise.

The girl was caressing her neck with her hands when she felt something sting her facial skin. It wasn't long before the stinging became more painful as her eyebrows lowered themselves with her eyes opened in ache. The water was washing away everything, even her skin. When it was too much, she began to scream in agony with her bleeding hands trying to reach for the shower knob to save her from the pain. She was victorious into making the water stop from pouring but the damage had already been inflicted upon her. Traces of blood were left dripping down the drain and her flesh on the upper body was collapsing from their God given nature. Her eyelids were too thin to protect her eyes, and the liquid had badly damaged her eyes. With impaired eyesight and throbbing body, her hands found the sliding door as she tried her best to free herself from captivity. The girl couldn't help but cry even though it hurt her skin when the salty liquid trickled down her injured face. After a few heartbreaking attempts, she was able to push the door with her wounded hands as she ran outside the bathroom. She walked with a stagger before landing on her bed after stumbling upon it. She collected the fabric of what she assumed was her blanket and covered herself with it.

Letting out a few more sobs, she made her way downstairs as her sense of touch guided her poorly. She called out her boyfriend's name a few times but nobody answered. Nevertheless, Giggles remained as calm as she could even though she was crying uncontrollably because of suffering from her injuries. The girl then felt tired of walking and her wounds were just too much to bear, so half of her body lay collapsed on the floor with her hands supporting her upper body. Amidst her crying, she sensed some kind of presence in front of her who she presumed was Cuddles.

"Cuddles...?" the girl said, trying to make sure it was him by reaching her hand out to touch him.

A smile drew itself in her lips when she felt a hand wrapping around her own. Soon, the hand travelled almost lovingly from her arm to her cheek. Giggles felt safe under the touch so she leaned her cheek further as her smile formed an innocent grin. Then she felt another hand caress her other cheek. The calming sensation made her feel like she drank a cup of hot cocoa as it sent subliminal messages of protection. Everything was going to be alright, she wasn't alone. Cuddles was with her and they will make through it together. Shortly afterwards, the serenity of the scene was then cruelly halted when those very hands twisted her neck and broke her cervical vertebrae—making a loud cracking sound in the process.

The lifeless girl collapsed on the floor like a broken mannequin with her right hand stretched out to the side. Not far from that hand was another pale one—attached to the arm of her dead lover.

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There were sounds of sirens and the screeching of tires as the town was once again disrupted with another night of carnage. A lot of people gathered as the Police tried their best to keep them away. Not long after, another police car came rushing towards the scene and stopped almost frantically. The car door opened and the driver went out, almost getting tripped in the process. Without even closing the car door, he ran as he pushed the people away from his path. The worried expression in his face concealed the exhaustion he had been suffering from for the past few days. He was asleep when the distress call came to their station, and nobody wanted to dare to tell him that the news was about his sister and her friends—so nobody woke him up. Due to his insisting and talent in investigation, he managed to make his colleague spill his knowledge about the recent call. Without hesitation, he came back home to actually see her for himself. The dominating reason of him going there was that he couldn't believe that it was true. Actually, he didn't want to believe it. Then, a few familiar faces came dashing towards him the moment they saw him as they tried to stop him from going inside their house.

"Splendid, I wouldn't..." One of them said, holding his shoulder to stop him from moving towards the crime scene.

The blue haired man stared at him with eyes—red from trying too hard to sustain his tears from falling. "What happened to her?"

His colleague only shook his head as a response to his question. He couldn't bring himself to tell Splendid the terrible truth.

He stood there unmoving, trying to process everything inside his mind. In trance, he shoved the hand over his shoulder and continued moving forward. His heart was beating loudly as his head pounded painfully from a potential migraine; thinking of the last words he said to his sister the day before, regretting that he wasn't by her side when she needed him. Tons of 'I should've' phrases forced themselves into his mind as he walked those excruciating steps and before he could realise it, he was in the doorstep as the opened door revealed what it could have concealed behind. The tears he worked so hard to contain triumphantly trickled and stained his cheeks. His mouth was left open and every part of his body suddenly went numb. The treasured memories they shared together suddenly went flashing in the back of his head and suddenly he realised... those were just memories, and they can't happen ever again.

In a limping manner, he went closer to her body which was currently covered with a thick sheet of cloth with the rest of her friends'.

_"I know you're always there to protect people," little Giggles uttered after clearing the stains of her chocolate mint chip ice cream from her chin with her white sleeves. "But who's going to protect you when you're the one who's going to need it?"_

_Her brother stopped swinging his feet back and forth to think about what he was going to answer to his curious sibling, "The one who protects people doesn't need protection, Giggles."_

_He then resumed to move his legs and added, "'Cause he's strong enough to handle anything."_

Without removing the sheet, he caressed her cheek as he covered his mouth and nose with his other arm. The smell of her rotting body was strong as if it was burned with some sort of acid. After mustering the courage to see beneath the thick sheet, he slowly took it off but not completely. Once he saw the pruned skin of her arm, Splendid moved his eyes to see her face as he tried so hard not to vomit. Her skin was hardly compact with the muscles beneath and some were stuck on the fabric and her expression was a frozen depiction of suffering and shock. When Splendid couldn't take it anymore, he went outside and leaned against the door frame with teary eyes and muffled screams.

From that moment on, he couldn't feel anything but deep hatred against the one responsible for his sister's death. He had sworn vengeance as he clenched his fists, almost injuring his palms with his own fingernails. His blue orbs glared into nothing as the tears distorted the images it had seen, all he could perceive was the image of someone he suspected greatly for the recent deaths.

'_You'll pay for this. You'll regret this.' _He swore to himself as it intensified his rage, with his sapphire orbs flickering in detestation. '_Flippy,'_

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The two large doors opened loudly and startlingly, making the few Policemen inside the room quickly tilt their heads to its location. A blue haired man strode his way across the hallway into the Sheriff's office, gaining a few curious eyes staring and watching his unprovoked actions. Without warning, he pushed the door open and closed it as soon as he got inside. The light blue haired tall man wore a puzzled expression as he was lounging with the help of his table. Splendid's fumed impression only baffled the man rather than consoling him for what had happened. The smaller man went closer and stated his purpose, "I want to issue a warrant of arrest against Flippy,"

Lumpy paused for a moment and arched an eyebrow, "To whom? ...What?"

Splendid felt like he was going to have another head ache for having to deal with their dim-witted superior, "I believe he's the suspect we're looking for, regarding the recent deaths."

"Yeah, your sister too, right?" he said almost like he didn't know what he was talking about as the other felt the desire to strangle him. "You're out of the case, Splendid. I can't issue the warrant for you,"

He almost felt that his nerve had exploded as he pounded both of his hands on the wooden table in anger, "I can't be out of this case!"

"You know the rules," Lumpy shrugged. "Don't worry, an agent came here and he'll be replacing you in the case—replacing you... case... Which case are we talking about again?"

The taller man's deep wonder was soon interrupted by the appearance of the man he mentioned a while ago and let out a big, "Ah!"

The blue haired man's thoughts of hurting the Sherriff was soon halted by his immense yell which made his eyebrows lower themselves in confusion. Lumpy pointed at someone who's behind the other man and Splendid impulsively turned to find out what was he pointing at. He saw a man wearing a turtle neck beneath his uniform and a pitch black sunglasses. What made his eyes twitch was that the man was holding some sort of cane used mostly by the blind.

"He's 'The Mole'," Lumpy introduced the mysterious man. "He's the one replacing you for the meantime."

"...Is he blind?" Splendid asked with uncertainty.

"Yeah," was his straightforward reply.

He returned his attention to his superior officer with an infuriated look all over his face, "Do you honestly think he's capable of—"

Splendid cut his sentence with a frustrated sigh before finally deciding to leave his office. He knew he had no chance to argue about it since the sheriff was stubborn despite his incapacity to process everything with his mind. With a final glare at the blind man—he closed the door and created a huge banging sound with it, expressing his irascibility with every vibration of the unprovoked clamour.

The man didn't give up though, but he had no other choice but to bring justice to his own hands.

Before leaving the station, he went to his cubicle to get his things. A few had noticed him wear his chest holster with two handguns attached, giving the impression that he was going to do something aggressive. Only one of them had the guts to speak to him about it and that person went to his cubicle and asked about his plan. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere," he replied as he secured the fastening of his holster.

"I don't mean to be rude and I completely understand your situation but... I don't think you should—"

Splendid looked at him in the eye and calmly replied, "Don't worry, man. I got this,"

And with that, he left the building without having any intention of returning ever again.

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The horizon changed its cerulean hue into a carmine haze as the dusk had come to take over the day. Splendid surveyed the area as he lifted his leather jacket's collar to protect his bare neck from the cold temperature. He had come to Flaky's humble abode, assuming that she and Flippy was residing there like they did before Flippy left for the military. Splendid made sure that his gun remained hidden underneath his jacket before knocking on the door; he didn't want to do anything violent for he was considerate of Flaky's welfare. After noticing that nobody was going to answer the door, he stopped knocking and looked through the slightly covered window. To his surprise, nobody seemed to be inside. He then deduced that they must have gone somewhere else; Splendid took it as an opportunity to find some evidences that will prove Flippy's guilt.

After making sure that nobody's going to notice him breaking into the house, he took his gun and used it to break the glass by hammering. Removing the few shards away, he reached for the door knob and unlocked it before finally being able to go inside. Splendid quickly closed the door behind him to avoid getting any suspicion and looked around the house. Everything was in order yet it gave the impression that nobody was there for a couple of days now. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet for a residential area and the only thing he could hear was his own footsteps. The faint smell of strawberries and vanilla lingered in the atmosphere as he went to the bedroom area, finding nothing but a neatly arranged bed and a study table near it. He opened her closet and found the clothes she usually wore, which means Flaky didn't abandon the place. Splendid found nothing suspicious in the house, and there wasn't any trace of Flippy either. When he was about to leave the house and go to Flippy's residence instead, something caught his attention—a white envelope, resting on Flaky's bed.

Thinking it must be something significant, he took the envelope and removed the letter from the inside. Sapphire eyes moved in a vertical way as he read the letter, and the more he read, the more his expression changed. He gulped an amount of saliva and folded the letter before he could even unconsciously drop it as what it had revealed to him suddenly turned everything, perhaps even his fate.

Something was wrong—very, very wrong.

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In all efforts to approach Flaky in a delicate manner with the intention of confronting the girl, Splendid wore this remorseful appearance as he found himself sitting in front of the very girl. He suddenly forgot about his anger, forgot about his plan. His intention was now a blur, thinking that the circumstances were greatly altered when he read that piece of paper earlier that day. With emotions torn from different events of his life, he had to weigh the consequences as he was left no choice but to deal with it immediately. Earlier, he had come to Flippy's residence to check if she was there. It wasn't long before his numerous knocks on the door was answered by the red haired girl, wearing a somewhat surprised look in her face. He had asked if Flippy was there, but Flaky simply said that he was out somewhere at the moment. Splendid only narrowed his eyes and frowned, an expression that portrayed a sense of sympathy.

The girl obliged Splendid's eager desire to talk to her about something as they sat in the living room, exchanging awkward looks with each other. Flaky didn't expect him to talk to her after all the things she told him, and Splendid on the other hand, didn't expect the girl to allow him to start a conversation with her—given that their last meeting wasn't as pleasant as he imagined. The girl held her hands together and had them rested on her lap as she kept her best to avoid his stare. She already had the slightest idea about his purpose, and she was glad that Flippy left the house before Splendid arrived. Given their rivalry against each other, it wouldn't be a peaceful sight and she was afraid to get caught in the middle of it. Nonetheless, Flaky knew she had to get rid of him right away so that Flippy won't see him inside his house. So, she opened his mouth to finally speak.

"What do you want to talk about, Splendid?" she tried her best not to sound so cold when she said the words.

Splendid removed his gaze from the table and looked at her to show his sincerity, "I, first, had to say sorry for the things I said before."

Flaky nodded, accepting the apology before letting him continue.

"Flaky... I'm sorry for intruding your house, but I found this in your bedroom." He said as he took an envelope from his jacket's inner pocket which Flaky quickly recognised.

The red haired girl parted her cherry lips as she stared at the familiar envelope. It was Flippy's letter to her, stipulating his intention of coming home. She then had no idea what was Splendid so nervous about showing her the said item. "...What about it?"

The man was appalled to know that she seemed to know its contents, and put the letter on the side table as he felt that it wasn't necessary for him to let her read it once again. "You've read it?"

"Yes," she answered quickly. "It's Flippy's letter to me... saying that he was coming back."

With an arched eyebrow, he had the confident idea that Flaky had some problems. "Flaky, it's important that you tell me the truth."

Despite every catastrophe that had happened to them both, Splendid felt a sting of concern towards the girl. What she must know will devastate her more than he was after losing his beloved sister.

He moved closer towards the girl as he held her hands with his own. "My sister, your cousin, and a friend of yours died yesterday. Now I want to know if you had any problems with them in the past,"

Even though she took the severe blow regarding his friends' deaths, the girl managed to process what Splendid was trying to get from her as she felt the sentiment he was going through because of Giggles' death. "I... they were..."

As he waited patiently for an honest answer, he felt her hands clasp themselves tighter in pressure. He suffered greatly from recently losing his loved one, but he knew that Flaky was going through so much more than he did. "Did they say anything or do anything that might've aggravated you in any way?"

Flaky bowed her head and shook it almost violently, "T-They were my friends,"

"Did Flippy say anything that provoked you to do anything violent?" he asked like he was talking to a little girl.

Feeling that Splendid was trying to accuse her of the crimes, she jerked her head upwards and looked at his pair of azure spheres. "Are you saying that I killed them?"

Even though he was trying to avoid giving her the harsh idea of his point, Flaky took his words seriously as she now seemed to be infuriated from being blamed. Splendid was taken aback and had the weird sensation that something bad was going to happen, as he cursed his luck for being the only one who could tell her the truth. Nevertheless, he kept his composure as he felt that there was no turning back. He had to say it. "Flaky... Flippy was—"

Before he could say anything further, a metal piercing through his chest stopped him from doing so as blood gushed from the wound and from his mouth. His swollen eyes were as widely open as his mouth, refusing to blink as he glued them on the similarly stunned girl. Splendid's sudden downfall had revealed his slayer beneath the shadows, a beast-like figure with gleaming golden eyes wielding a bloody bowie knife. As Flaky sat there beholding the nightmare she had foreseen in her sleep, the potent struggle with herself dissolved within the fiery orbs that stared at her with scorn. The lifeless body now lay collapsed on the floor, leaving traces of slaughter in the wild imagery of his last memory on Earth. She muttered his name almost silently and left her mouth open after it pronouncing the last letter of his name.

"It's hard to keep a promise, isn't it?" the voice sounded like it was from inside her head.

"Y-You..." Flaky stuttered as she ran out of suitable words to speak.

Flippy's eyes followed the trickles of blood that stained the sharp metal he was holding, keeping the urge to lick them away from sight. The arising suspicions against him became clearer to her when she witnessed him do it in her very eyes. She felt heartbroken from being betrayed by someone she had trusted the most, sacrificing every bit of her time with him and making the friendship she had built with the others she held dear rot in the process. The girl wanted to scream, she wanted to let him know how devastated she was when that bowie knife stabbed her remaining friend. Even though he was there, she felt as lonely as before he came back. She felt that she was with a stranger that kept her sightless within the imaginary blindfold he had forced her to wear.

"I've lost... e-everyone. H-How could you? How could you do this!" she managed to let out with tears streaming from her tear ducts and her fists pounding on her lap. "You're the one who killed everyone, aren't you? You killed everyone!"

The green haired man only smirked at her outburst as he was amazed of how innocent she was. "I didn't,"

Her sobs had won against her voice as they repressed the words from coming out, forming broken and mixed sentences that began with 'How?' and 'Why?'

Flippy then felt the need and was left no other choice but to enlighten her with her own dark deeds. "You did,"

Those two simple words made her snap out from her frantic thoughts and opened her eyes to look at him. His image was as vivid as reality but had begun to fade when faint memories of the bitter sweet yesterdays made her lightheaded. Memories that she could not recall before. Memories buried deep down in her subconscious and wasn't aware of the fact that it truly happened. The mixed emotions. The things that cannot be undone and had regretfully been executed.

Segregating reality from fantasy,

She snapped from her artificial haven...

...and realised the truth.

With trembling and hysterical body, she looked down at her hand and saw the bloody mess scattered in her arm—and the same bowie knife she saw him wield. Letting it give in to the call of gravity, she lifted her hands and stared resentfully at her disappointing masterpiece. _'What have I done?'_

Heart beating,

Head pounding.

She turned her head to the side and found the letter on the side table where Splendid had left it. Staining the white paper with blood, she held it in her hands and took the letter from inside to read,

The truth she had denied herself to know in order to continue living with a destructive hope of becoming happy.

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WAR DEPARTMENT

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE

XXXXXX XX, X.X

XX XXXX XXXX.

Dear Ms. Flaky;

You have no doubt been notified by this time of the death of your loved one, Sergeant Flippy, who passed away in expense of the lives of his men as they were fleeing from an enemy assault during XX XXXX XXXX. Confident that the announcement came as a great shock to you, I am writing these few lines to let you know a little more about the circumstances surrounding his death.

In XX XXXX XXXX, the regiment in which he belonged to had successfully infiltrated and claimed an enemy base after being airborne a few minutes before the campaign. A few days later, his squad had been reassigned and was designated into another enemy bunker. His gallantry had proved him essential to this mission in whom we believed that he was the only one capable of being victorious, and without hesitation, he accepted this mission wholeheartedly. With high expectations, his squad was sent there and had effectively taken command of the said facility. They had taken refuge in the bunker and were supposed to ambush potential targets as they lingered. Nonetheless, to our great demise, the enemy had devised against our plan.

He suffered greatly from his wounds he got from a mortar fire yet he was still able to instruct his subordinates and take part in the fight. They were greatly outnumbered and had no chance of getting any reinforcements for it was too risky, so we had no choice but to remove his squad from the bunker. A few men had sacrificed themselves for the safety of their comrades and he was the noblest of them all. If it wasn't because of him, his men wouldn't have been able to escape the enemy. His subordinates speak highly of him as they were able to safely return to our headquarters in XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX, and they were all devastated about his death.

It was a severe blow to all of us when we were informed that he was not able to make it. Sergeant Flippy was one of our finest combatants and his legend shall be cherished forever. His leadership and legacy remains in the memory of his subordinates as they continue to fight and win the wars for our country. With deep regret and sympathy, we were not able to retrieve his body from the battlefield, but he was given religious rites and was given full military honors during the mass funeral.

My words may never be enough to somehow ease your pain from losing someone you hold dear. The only consolation I can offer is the fact that the absence of your loved one has enhanced the honor of his service to his country and of his sacrifice. The future generation shall never forget what soldiers like him had done for their freedom and welfare. May your family be blessed by the God Almighty as you continue living with cherished memories of the loved and lost.

Most Sincerely,

XXXXX X. XXXXXXXX

Major General

The Adjutant General of the Army

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**Author's Note: **So I was writing the story with a shotgun approach. I had the plot, just had to elaborate the details... add some lines, blah blah blah. Then I saw myself writing the last chapter and a realisation came to me. I was like, 'Wait a minute, they don't send Death Notifications anymore.'

And there was no turning back. If I change that, the whole point of the story will be ruined. So I just snickered. Yup, that's all I did.

There's no definite time anyway, I guess the Department will do that again once it goes all chaotic like in WWII. I mean, the NCOs won't have the time to go door to door just to say, "Hi Ma'am! Your husband died by friendly fire during an assault!

...Would you like to buy some biscuits?"

Haha so yeah, the story still makes sense if you think about it. Anyway, I'm finally done. I'll start editing the later chapters because I haven't done that yet. After that my life will lose its meaning once again. Sigh. Thank you guys who had the patience to bear with me, I know I ended up killing every character you loved and wished wouldn't die... I'm sorry. But don't go off telling me that Flaky had to die too, 'cause I'll stab you. Nobody touches Flaky! I know, I'm biased. I know.

I'll be back, one last time for the Epilogue. I know I have a lot of explaining to do. So if you have any questions, include them in your review and I promise, I'll answer them as detailed as I could.


	10. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

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The sound of pouring water dominated the sounds of her sobbing as they strived to wash away the woe inside her perishing cognisance. She held herself and moped under the cold visage of the transparent liquid, hoping it would wake her senses and make the pain stop. The girl wondered of what she had become, the crimes she had committed just to deceive everyone—even herself. The illusory of histories that she had engraved in the hearts of many to prove something that wasn't real, she had executed them to prove that he never ceased to exist. Nevertheless, the truth was too bare to be concealed. He was gone, he wasn't coming back. Her subconscious couldn't accept that fact; convincing her it wasn't real by replacing the reality with a destructive lie. The girl held herself tighter and her sobs began to deafen her own ears, flooding the room with echoes of anguish and regret.

She could fool herself once again and consider everything as a bad dream... but she thought that she was done.

She was done fooling herself.

_Flaky then felt a warm flush had started to dominate her cold cheeks. "I'm trying to remember how you looked like before you left,"_

_The dim light cast the shadow of one as she walked alone in that deserted street, holding onto nothing but her own hands._

_She let out a hearty laugh and said, "You never change,"_

_Never change._

_Never change._

_Never..._

Becoming aware of the truth only made her heart clench in pain as the memories of her solitude made her realise the irony of her acts. The mocking sounds of voices that laughed at her dying sanity proved her guilty. She wanted to scream in order to deafen herself from hearing those maddening noises. They only said what she already knew. Why do they have to say it over and over again?

_The girl locked the door behind her and laid on the velveteen sheets, fondling the smooth skin of her own body as she moaned under the delicate touch. _

She went out of the bathroom without even bothering to cover herself with any towel as she left puddles of water, tracing the footsteps that she made. Flaky felt something warm in her cheeks before she could notice that she was crying again. The sight of his bed and the memories it brought her only gave her solitude for they won't happen ever again. She was alone.

Tracing her fingers as they collided with the warm fabric, Flaky imagined it was his touch. Then she clenched on it and lifted it for her to smell the fragrance it left behind. The scent was as faint as his smile, yet it proved that he was there. He was once alive—and he was once with her.

_The door had been opened, letting an amount of daylight flood the somewhat dark room. Soon, there emerged a girl with red hair who looked somewhat dismayed and fatigued despite the fact that it was still early. Her eyes caught his favourite chair and coffee mug, sitting silently in the other end of the room. She smiled in thought as she went closer to lean her head on the chair, feeling the calming breeze that managed to make their way through the open window brush against her red hair._

Collecting her water drenched hair with her hand while fixing her recently worn clothes; her bare feet ventured the living room and saw the same chair illuminated by the moonlight as the unwashed coffee mug lay resting on the side table beside it. The image of Flippy sipping hot coffee from the mug prevented her from going any further, wishing the hallucination was actually real. Almost hesitantly, she went to pick up the mug and stroked the ceramic with her fingers. It was cold, she thought. There were dried traces of brown liquid as the awakening aroma still remained. She smiled at the thought of how she tasted the coffee in his lips whenever she gives him a peck before leaving for work during the morning.

_She sat on the veranda with a stick of cigarette between her fingers, calming her senses after waking up from another bad dream. As she inhaled the bitter sweet poison into her lungs, she felt like she was inhaling his breath instead—reuniting with her own._

Flaky went to the kitchen and took the lighter from one of the counter's drawers. She held it tightly and stared at it, seeing her reflection in the metal plate.

_"We're here... the only thing that should matter is us," the words her subconscious evoked hypnotised her fragile state of mind._

Founding a few gasoline cans in his garage, she took one of them and unsealed it.

_"It's hard to keep a promise, isn't it?" the voice sounded like it was from inside her head._

After spilling the flammable substance around the house, she went outside and stood not far from the doorstep as she stared at the structure for the last time. She took the letter from her pocket with the lighter in her other hand, and she couldn't deny that what she was about to do would be the hardest thing she had ever done. But that's when people grow; when they have learned the art of letting go.

With a single flicker, it ignited the fire and was now burning the letter. The words were turning into ashes. Gone.

_Flippy sneaked through the crumbling structures, marching forward as he was trying to flank their route. He crouched and took a small peak through the broken window, and saw the enemy regrouping as they were struggling to push heavy artillery with their bare hands. He narrowed his eyes and took cover before anyone could see him. He let them move forward, granting access to another structure where he could hide before finally charging towards the enemy. _

She didn't want to cry anymore as she felt that there was nothing more she could secrete. As her crimson eyes mirrored the dancing inferno before her, she took her eyes off the letter and threw it to the gasoline drenched pavement.

_He exhaled an amount of air and savoured the way it smelled. With gritted teeth and solid might, he aimed his rifle with every enemy he saw and shot them as fast as he could whilst running towards their line. A few of them were able to embed their bullets into his body yet he forced himself to ignore the pain. As he was running out of time and bullets, his hand reached for the string that was tied around all of the grenade pins. Flippy watched the world in slow motion, enjoying the chaos he had caused all around him. Their expression. Their panic. Their deaths. _

_With one smirk, he pulled the string as the grenades began to get cooked._

With all her might, Flaky threw the letter in front of his door, creating a fast spreading blaze with the help of the gasoline.

_After a few seconds, a large explosion echoed throughout the horizon._

The fire gave warmth as it dissolved the northern wind with its power, illuminating the darkness of the night. Snowflakes had begun to fall from the clouds and had threatened to extinguish the flames, but the latter proved itself stronger as it melted the snowflakes instead. The direction of which her hair was blown resembled the withering trees as they were blown away by the cold zephyr. She felt a whirling cyclone of emotions drenching her fragile heart and the flames danced in rejoice of her courageous sacrifice. Flaky smiled after all the sorrows, feeling that she had finally done something right.

And then, she walked away.

-The End-

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**Author's Note: **I lied when I said I'm going to edit the last four chapters... 'cause I haven't, YET. I will... someday. And oh yeah, I don't know why but Fanfiction . net is getting evil on me. Won't let me log in for the past 48 hours and I only got the chance today.

Also, I said I'm going to explain a few things about the story but I decided to leave those things to your own perception. Seriously, this is not my laziness talking, I'm serious. Seriously, I'm serious. Hahaha. Yeah, I was supposed to explain why Flaky killed everyone and why she burned the letter and his house yada yada. But I know that you guys are smart and you're capable of interpreting those on your own. This is why we all go to school.

**Reply(/ies) to Review(s): **

**Pressure .N. Prestige, **Regarding your confusion towards the new characters. I don't give them names and sometimes distinguish them just by adjectives. It's because they're not important and do not play a significant role in the story.

**Cherry-chu, **I was actually waiting for someone to beat me into it but I guess that would discourage me to keep writing and actually finishing the whole story. Nonetheless, your speculations are interesting. Other than that, thanks for reading.


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